St Patrick's Day is focus of €37m tourism campaign

ST PATRICK'S Day will serve as the centrepiece of a new worldwide tourism drive costing €37million to promote Ireland as an attractive destination this year.

The initiative, which is being lead by Tourism Ireland, will run for the next six months and is one of the biggest campaigns ever organised to promote the island.

It follows a Budget allocation of €170 million to the tourism sector, the biggest in the State's history.

St Patrick's Day will serve as the first big focus of the promotion, which will seek to increase strong existing markets, such as Britain and US, and develop a greater interest in Ireland in newer markets, including China.

Last year, the number of tourists visiting Ireland reached nine million for the first time.

Despite challenging economic conditions in North America and Britain, Tourism Ireland is confident the number can be exceeded this year.

Tourism Ireland chairman Hugh Friel said: "We need to pull out all the stops to ensure we get our share of the business to be won.

"This spring campaign is the most intensive and most closely targeted we have ever mounted.

"Our aim is to convert the massive interest in Ireland into actual travel and solid bookings," Mr Friel said.

The main focus of the campaign will be to tap into the interest in Ireland generated by St Patrick's celebrations across the globe and, as part of the initiative, Beijing will experience its first St Patrick's Day parade, as part of a week-long "Ireland Cultural Festival" in the Chinese capital.

"St Patrick's Day provides our tourism industry with a unique platform to showcase what we have to offer to people across the globe . . . We are envied by many tourism agencies around the world, who would love to have such a well-recognised occasion associated with their destination," Mr Friel said.

A further 25 million potential visitors from nine countries across Europe, Australia, South Africa and India will have an opportunity to view two new documentaries about Ireland.

The programmes, which feature Donegal, Derry and Cork, were filmed by the National Geographic television channel and are due to be broadcast in the coming weeks.