The 38th annual Milwaukee Irish Fest – the largest celebration of Irish culture and heritage in the United States – had a large Galway representation in Wisconsin last week.
With a huge audience of around 150,000 visitors, the four-day festival was an ideal opportunity for Tourism Ireland to showcase the island of Ireland as a superb holiday destination.
Pat Breen, Minister of State for Trade, Employment, Business, EU Digital Single Market and Data Protection, attended the festival, where he met with the Tourism Ireland team and the delegation of Irish tourism enterprises attending this year’s festival – including representatives from Galway County Council.
“Tourism Ireland’s presence at this year’s Milwaukee Irish Fest provides another excellent platform to showcase Galway and Ireland and the diversity of our heritage and culture – and is a good opportunity to invite some of the many people of Irish descent living and working in the US, as well as those with Irish connections or an affinity for Ireland, to come and visit ,” said Alison Metcalfe, Tourism Ireland’s Head of North America.
“Visitor numbers from North America are really strong for the first half of this year, up +10.7% on the same period last year. In 2018, we are confident that our strategy – combined with more airline seats than ever before from the US, as well as the strength and competitiveness of the vacation experience right around the island of Ireland – will deliver further growth.”
