General Industry

Tourism Ireland Launches Campaign To Highlight Ireland's Halloween Connection

By Dave Simpson
Tourism Ireland Launches Campaign To Highlight Ireland's Halloween Connection

Tourism Ireland has launched a new PR campaign to highlight the island of Ireland's connection with Halloween.

Through the campaign, Tourism Ireland is highlighting that many of the world's well-known Halloween traditions began on the island of Ireland.

The aim of the campaign is to ensure that the island of Ireland is part of the online conversation about Halloween this week and that the island remains "top of mind" among prospective visitors around the world until the time is right for them to visit again.

All of the arrangements for the campaign on the ground on the island of Ireland were put in place by Fáilte Ireland, Tourism NI and Visit Derry.

As part of the campaign, Tourism Ireland invited approximately 150 popular journalists, bloggers and influencers to take part in a number of virtual events this week to reveal the origins of Halloween in Ireland and to help generate an online conversation about the island of Ireland.

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In the US, Tourism Ireland hosted a satellite media tour, with more than 12 million people tuning in to find out about the island of Ireland's Halloween traditions. The broadcasts included interviews with celebrity chef Kevin Dundon, Bram Stoker's great grandnephew, Dacre Stoker, "Winifred the Witch", and Clodagh Doyle of the National Museum of Ireland.

Doyle also worked with Tourism Ireland to create a special Halloween podcast for the Nordic countries about the origins of the island of Ireland's Halloween traditions, games and legends.

In Canada, celebrity chef Clodagh McKenna showcased some of the island of Ireland's Halloween treats and traditions on The Marilyn Denis Show.

Tourism Ireland also unveiled a video that highlights the island of Ireland as the "home of Halloween" earlier this week.

"A Major PR And Publicity Push"

Tourism Ireland director of markets Siobhan McManamy stated, "We are rolling out a major PR and publicity push all about Halloween this week, targeting our database of top international journalists and influencers with the message that the island of Ireland is the true 'home of Halloween'. They, in turn, are sharing news about Ireland with their millions of fans, followers, readers, viewers and listeners. Tourism Ireland's aim is to ensure that the island of Ireland remains 'front-of-mind' among prospective visitors around the world until the time is right for them to visit again. Once this crisis is past and Ireland is open again to international visitors, we in Tourism Ireland will be ready to roll out an extensive recovery kick-start programme and to play our part in delivering a sustainable recovery for the long-term future of our industry."

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