Earlier this week television and radio ads encouraging Irish people to get away from it all and explore Ireland’s west coast were broadcast across national channels such as RTE, TV3, Sky and Channel 4 as Fáilte Ireland’s latest home holiday campaign for the Wild Atlantic Way began in earnest. The €500k campaign focusses on bolstering Ireland’s off-season period and will run from the end of Augst through to mid-October reaching an estimated 3.3million Irish adults.
Building on the ‘Embrace the Wild Atlantic Way of Life’ campaign which was launched earlier this year, the campaign highlights a variety of experiences to be had along the coastal route which give visitors a chance to relax and reconnect with friends, family and loved ones.
As well as featuring on national TV the campaign will be carried across national and local radio, as well as through our ‘always on’ online and social media channels. It is expected that 94% of adults will be exposed to the campaign over the 8 week period.
Speaking about the campaign, Fáilte Ireland CEO, Paul Kelly explained that the domestic market is an important element of Ireland’s overall tourism sector. “
“Domestic performance along the Wild Atlantic Way, according to businesses on the ground, has been positive so far this year and it is our hope that this campaign will further bolster this performance as we head out of the busy summer months into the shoulder season,” he said.
“Fáilte Ireland also maintains a watchful eye on those counties who are most likely to suffer lower visitor numbers along the border as a result of Brexit and it is our hope that this autumn campaign will encourage more domestic visitors to consider a break in counties located outside of the main hotspots such as Donegal, Sligo and Mayo which all feature strongly in the campaign.”
The Irish domestic market is a very important component of the tourism sector and has proven to be very robust in recent years. Last year’s performance was buoyant with 4.8 million holiday/leisure trips taken, up 3.7 per cent on 2015. Expenditure on domestic holidays in 2016 was €1.12 billion a five per cent increase on the previous years.
Total nights spent on domestic leisure trips last year was estimated at just over 15 million, a two per cent increase on the previous year, with the average length of holiday trip at 3.1 nights. Visitors who stayed in hotel accommodation accounted for over 3.6 million domestic trips in 2016.
