Tourism Ireland kicked off a major advertising blitz in Italy this week and more than 1m Italians expected to see the 15 second video ads on screens in airports, metro stations and shopping centres around Italy. The campaign is part of Tourism Ireland’s end-of-year kickstart campaign – to position Ireland ‘top of mind’ with Italians who’re now considering their holiday destination for 2020.
The video is also running online, including on social platforms (Facebook and Instagram), until 31 December – reaching around 6.4 million people. In addition, Tourism Ireland is also targeting influential travel professionals – with a special Ireland ‘webinar’ (online training) for top Italian travel agents and promotions with Italy’s three most important publications for the travel trade, L’Agenzia di Viaggi, TTG Italia and Guida Viaggi.
In 2018, 384,000 Italian tourists came to Ireland. Tourism Ireland has been undertaking an extensive and targeted programme of promotional activity in Italy throughout 2019 in an attempt to grow this number.
According to Niamh Kinsella, Tourism Ireland’s Manager Italy: “Our end-of-year kickstart campaign is now under way, targeting Italian travellers who’re considering where to go for their 2020 holiday. It heralds the start of another busy promotional drive for Tourism Ireland in Italy in 2020. We’re confident that our extensive programme of campaigns and promotions, targeting people with the greatest potential to travel to Ireland, will continue to grow Italian visitor numbers to the island of Ireland.”
The spend on this campaign in Italy comes from the additional funding allocated to Tourism Ireland in Budget 2020, in response to the Brexit challenge for Irish tourism. End-of-year kick-start promotional campaigns will also be rolled out in Britain, the United States, Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands and the Nordic countries – designed to position us well for 2020.
