“Spend by holiday and leisure visitors to the Region has grown to over €125 million annually. Tourism is now Ireland’s largest indigenous industry, and the Ireland market is the most important market for most tourism businesses in the Shannon Region. In a bid to further grow this business, Shannon Development is launching a new Shannon Region holiday brochure as part of a major home holiday campaign”, says John King, Director Heritage and Tourism, Shannon Development.
The launch will take place this week at the forthcoming ‘Holiday World’ travel shows in Belfast, Dublin and Limerick, which are attended by over 100,000 prospective holiday makers. The new 24 page full colour Shannon Region home holiday brochure will emphasis value for money, offering visitors “extra value” breaks and a range of diverse holiday packages.
Visitors to the Dublin holiday world show will be given an opportunity to enjoy a free surf lesson at the Shannon Region tourism stand with current Irish senor champion John McCarthy from Lahinch Surf School. Surfing is just one of hundreds of holiday options from this year’s Shannon Region holiday brochure which members of the tourism trade will be actively promoting at the holiday world shows.
This year’s drive is set to be one of the most comprehensive ever. Shannon Development, who co-ordinate the Shannon Region tourism trade participation at the holiday shows, will have a regional stand which will be manned by the Region’s tourism trade and Shannon Development staff. These shows will then be followed on during the year by attendance at a number of domestic special interest and consumer shows tailored to the Irish market including; the ‘over 50’s Shows’ in Dublin and Cork, Irish Open Golf, the Smurfit European Open and the Fáilte Ireland Golf Show in Belfast, the National Ploughing Championships, and a series of shopping centre promotions throughout the country.
“A particular focus of our marketing efforts in 2006 will be on electronic marketing. Over 1.2 million Irish people are now on-line and 92% of these have email. Travel and holiday accommodation are now the most common internet purchase. As these numbers continue to grow, more and more business will be generated through electronic marketing”, says Mr. King.
Conscious of this fact, Shannon Development has been actively rebalancing from traditional marketing to electronic marketing. As one part of this refocusing, the Company will again work closely with Pigsback.com, who will feature a special ‘Shannon Region Holiday Zone’ on their site for the second year. This zone will promote special-value holiday offers in the Shannon Region to the Pigsback membership, which is now in excess of 200,000. In addition to great value holiday offers, the special ‘Shannon Region Holiday Zone’ will feature on-going competitions with superb holiday prizes and provides an opportunity to download discount vouchers to the Region’s top visitor attractions. Throughout 2006 there will be also be on-going emailing of Shannon Region tourism trade value-offers to the membership of Pigsback.com.
“Two in every three tourism businesses in the Shannon Region now have their own websites and the Shannon Development tourism website provides direct links to most of these businesses. During 2006 we will actively promote this site in conjunction with Fáilte Ireland. The site www.ShannonRegionTourism.ie features special value holiday offers and comprehensive information on accommodations, activities, attractions and entertainments in the Shannon Region.,” says Kevin O’ Loughlin, senior tourism marketing executive Shannon Development, who is responsible for developing the home holiday tourist market.
“2006 will be a challenging year for the tourism industry generally and there will be increased competition on the home market with more overseas destinations seeking to lure the Irish to holiday overseas. However competition is always a good thing and we are happy the Shannon Region offers greater variety than ever and great value. This is why we will be working even harder this year, actively promoting the Region and pushing ‘extra value’ holiday offers in partnership with the tourism trade from Clare, Limerick, North Tipperary and South Offaly. The holiday fairs will kick start our efforts to promote the Shannon Region as the ideal home holiday destination for 2006,” said Mr. King.
Nandi O’Sullivan
Public Relations Manager
Tel: +353 61 710259
Mobile: +353 86-2371510
Fax: 061 363180
E-mail: Click Here