20 Irish tourism businesses are on their way to China today to engage with over 450 top travel agents and tour operators. Tourism Ireland will travel to the cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou along with key lifestyle and travel journalists.
The sales blitz will continue for one week and will include workshops, presentations and networking events. Irish tourism companies will be introduced to influential travel agents and will try to entice them into including Ireland in their 2014 brochures. Ireland will have to compete for a share of over 3 million Chinese tourist to Europe each year.
Tourism Ireland have just launched the Chinese version of Ireland.com and is currently running an online ad campaign to promote the new site, targeting travellers living in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.
"Although awareness of Ireland in China is still quite low, we believe that this market represents a significant opportunity for Irish tourism. Tourism Ireland is committed to growing visitor numbers from China over the coming years – from approximately 17,000 visitors in 2012 to 50,000 per year, over the coming five years. Factors working in our favour, which have helped to increase Ireland's profile in this vast, hugely diverse market, include the huge popularity of Riverdance in China, as well as last year's visit by the then vice-president Xi Jinping, who has since become president." said CEO of Tourism Ireland, Niall Gibbins
