€12.5m spent to woo Chinese here

TOURISM chiefs are planning to spend millions of euro to woo the Chinese to come on holiday to Ireland — for romance, Riverdance and whiskey.

Tourism Ireland yesterday launched its €12.5m overseas marketing campaign and for the first time ever, is advertising directly to residents in Shanghai.

Yesterday, tourism bosses said China could be a lucrative future market for Irish hoteliers, travel firms and heritage sites — despite the 13-hour plane journey from the Far East.

“Previously we have focused on building relationships with the travel trade in Shanghai by bringing people over for trips here,” said Sinéad Grace of Tourism Ireland, a north-south body.

“But this will be the first time we will be directly targeting consumers in China and appealing to them to come here to visit.”

About 6,000 Chinese visitors come to Ireland annually but tourism chiefs hope their marketing drive will attract 30,000 each year by 2010.

“It’s a fairly small market for us but we’ve got great hopes for it,” added Ms Grace.

Two years ago the tourism body set up an office in Shanghai after the Chinese authorities gave Ireland the crucial Approved Destination Status, allowing China’s citizens to visit Ireland.

Now the tourism board’s Chinese campaign will be selling Ireland as the land of romance, Riverdance traditional music and top-notch shopping in places like Grafton Street, Dublin.

The campaign will also focus on fine whiskey, linen and crystal, along with golf courses and historic sites like the Giant’s Causeway, in Co Antrim, and Newgrange in Co Meath.

Tourists from China who come to Ireland have to fly via London Heathrow or Paris Charles de Gaulle airports with the flight lasting about 13 hours.

“There are no direct flights to Ireland at the moment from China but it is something Aer Lingus might look at, but it won’t be today or tomorrow,” she added.

By 2020 the World Tourism Organisation reckons China — with its 1.3 billion population — will be the world’s biggest market for tourists heading overseas with 100 million heading abroad, compared with 34m last year.

Tourism Ireland’s €12.5m overseas autumn marketing campaign will also run in the US, continental Europe as well as Britain, which remains Ireland’s largest tourism market.

Of the 7.7m tourists who came to Ireland last year, more than four million or 53% came from Britain.

Tourism Ireland, which promotes the tourist trade on an all-island front, is campaigning to get more Britons to visit the cities with direct flights and sailings.