Tourism Ireland, together with 11 Irish tourism companies, is preparing to undertake a week-long sales mission to Australia and New Zealand at the end of October in order to grow tourism from both markets. The organisation held a briefing in Dublin for the companies who will participate in the upcoming sales mission.
Above are Alison Deegan, Original Irish Hotels; Simon Mamouney, Deputy Head of Mission in the Australian Embassy in Ireland; and Niall Gibbons, Chief Executive, Tourism Ireland, at the briefing for Tourism Ireland’s sales mission to Australia and New Zealand.
The sales mission – which takes place on 22nd-28th October 2018 – will target hundreds of influential travel agents, tour operators, airlines and travel journalists through a series of workshops and networking events in the key cities of Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland.
The objective is to engage with travel professionals in the four cities who are currently selling Ireland, or who have strong potential to sell the destination – and to encourage them to extend their Ireland offering, or to include Ireland for the first time, in their future brochures and programmes.
Ireland has seen good growth in visitors from Australia and New Zealand over the past few years, with around 228,000 visiting from both countries in 2017.
Sofia Hansson, Tourism Ireland’s Manager Australia and New Zealand, said: “Our sales mission is a key element of our promotional programme in Australia and New Zealand, as we prepare for 2019. The workshops will give our tourism partners from Ireland a really good platform to inform and influence the travel professionals they meet about what Ireland has to offer and, importantly, encourage them to include the destination in their future brochures and programmes.”
