WestKerryand Italytwinning
DINGLE and west Kerry have been twinned with Italy as part of a major new promotional drive that was launched in the last week by Tourism Ireland.
At an event in Milan, Tourism Ireland’s branch in Italy highlighted Kerry and Ireland, and the many great reasons for Italian holidaymakers to visit in 2020.
The Milanese event was attended by around 100 travel and lifestyle journalists, bloggers and influencers from various Italian publications, broadcasters and online tourism and lifestyle sites.
Tourism Ireland said the event was designed to entertain and inform the guests about Kerry and Ireland and “really bring the destination to life” by presenting new themes and story ideas for 2020 to the media and influencers.
Among those in Milan to pitch for Kerry was Kingdom Food Tours.
The promotional event involved a full day of presentations, networking, as well as interactive sessions including a cooking demo and a whiskey tasting.
There were also photo opportunities for the influencers and journalists aimed at “helping stimulate sharing and conversation” about Ireland on social channels during the event.
Tourism Ireland also took the opportunity to highlight its new ‘ twinning’ initiative for 2020 – which will see each overseas market ‘ twinning’ with a specific region on the island of Ireland. As part of the initiative, Italy is ‘ twinning’ with the Dingle Peninsula, and Tourism Ireland’s team in Italy will place a special focus on Dingle and Kerry this year.
“In 2019, we welcomed around 392,000 Italian visitors to Ireland. We are now focused on the year ahead. Our aim is to continue to grow Italian visitor numbers and, in particular, to encourage more of them to come and explore our regions and less-visited attractions during the off-peak season,” said Tourism Ireland’s Manager in Italy Niamh Kinsella.