Tourism Ireland’s 2015 series of ‘Jump into Ireland’ sales blitzes across the United States kicks off this week – in Washington DC, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia (Pennsylvania). Together with a delegation of Irish tourism companies, Tourism Ireland,  will once again ‘pound the pavements’ in the all-important American market this year, targeting hundreds of travel agents and influential journalists in key cities.

 

This week’s sales blitz involves a busy schedule of B2B events, which includes a 60-minute travel TV show format highlighting Ireland to the influential American audience, as well as networking sessions with travel and lifestyle journalists – providing an excellent platform to showcase and sell Ireland to important travel decision-makers in each city. It’s also a useful opportunity to highlight the ease of access from the US to the island of Ireland – including the new Aer Lingus flight from Washington DC to Dublin, beginning in May this year.

 Similar ‘Jump into Ireland’ events will take place in Atlanta (Georgia), Charlotte and Tampa (Florida), in March; Minneapolis (Minnesota), Denver and Dallas (Colorado), in September; and in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and San Francisco, in November.

 

Alison Metcalfe (pictured) Tourism Ireland’s head of North America, said: “The United States is one of the most important markets for tourism to the island of Ireland and 2014 was another record year – we welcomed over one million American visitors, spending more than US$1 billion. Our ambition for 2015 is to grow visitor numbers from the US by a further +6% and we look forward to working closely with our valuable industry partners, in both the US and Ireland, to achieve that target. The outlook for the year ahead is positive, particularly given that the number of airline seats from the United States to Ireland is set to grow by +14% in the peak summer season months, making it that much easier to get to the island of Ireland from 11 gateways across the US.”