Britain and Ireland sign tourism MoU
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VisitBritain and Tourism Ireland have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to boost inbound tourism numbers.
The MoU was signed by Tourism Ireland’s CEO Niall Gibbons and VisitBritain’s CEO Sandie Dawe in London today which will see the tourism authorities work closer together to entice more foreign tourists to visit.
Markets such as China and India will be the initial focus with the scope to cover long-haul markets outside of Europe and North America.
“We already enjoy a very good working relationship with our colleagues in VisitBritain. However, under this new, mutually beneficial agreement, we look forward to working even more closely with them. For the island of Ireland, the majority of our overseas visitors come from Great Britain, North America and Mainland Europe, and while this will continue, it is important that we expand our focus beyond these markets and look to the long-term opportunities presented by new tourism markets, including the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), which we believe will play an increasingly important role for travel and tourism,” said Gibbons.
“Given that visitors from these markets are travelling considerable distances, and often want to include more than one destination on their itinerary, it makes sense for Tourism Ireland to co-operate with VisitBritain – to target people travelling to Britain and encourage them to visit the island of Ireland as part of their trip, and vice versa,” he added.
Activity under the partnership will include joint fam and press trips; trade show space sharing where applicable; joint sales missions, data sharing and joint planning.
Sandie Dawe, CEO of VisitBritain, said: “We have ambitious targets to encourage record numbers of visits to Britain from long-haul, high-spending markets such as China and India – as do our colleagues at Tourism Ireland. This new partnership aims to capitalise on opportunities by aligning our work and marketing activities in these countries where appropriate.”
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