Marketing will play a key role in rebooting Irish tourism

LAST week, an estimated two million viewers in the UK tuned into Adrian Dunbar’s Coastal Ireland on Channel 5. A two-part series presented by the star of Virgin Media Television’s hit series Blood, the Fermanagh native treated viewers to some spectacular and breathtaking coastal vistas from around the island of Ireland.

Produced by the Belfast’s Afro-Mic, with financial support from Tourism Ireland and Northern Ireland Screen, the series aims to showcase some of Ireland’s more rugged and beautiful coastal spots to our next-door neighbour and, hopefully, keep Ireland top of their mind when they book their next holiday.

Other such Tourism Ireland-funded initiatives include a food travelogue fronted by celebrity chef Donal Skehan and a Hidden Ireland documentary hosted by the well-known travel journalist Peter Greenberg, both of which will air on PBS in the USA.

With much of the global market for tourism still in forced hibernation, keeping Ireland on screens is about the best we can hope for at the moment. Or, at least until such a time when international tourism takes off again and Tourism Ireland gets the go-ahead to pull the trigger on some of the big budget advertising campaigns that it is planning to roll out around the world as it aims to reboot an industry that has suffered more than most.

Rebooting the Irish tourism industry is going to be a tough task. Notwithstanding the many financial challenges the industry still faces in the months ahead, practically every other country in the world will be trying to kick-start their own tourism sectors.

But it’s a task that is vitally important to the Irish economy and the many thousands of businesses and people who derive their living from tourism.

Not surprisingly, marketing will play a key role in all of this and thankfully we have a pretty strong track record when it comes to promoting ourselves on the international stage.

One only has to look at the success of the Wild Atlantic Way, Ireland’s Ancient East and Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands, all three of which are a triumph of savvy marketing over basic geography.

But there is also a strong correlation between the growth and development of the Irish tourism industry over the last 10 years and the amount of money that has been invested in marketing.

For an industry that was worth €5.8bn to the economy in 2019 and accounted for over 320,000 jobs on the island of Ireland, it’s money well spent.

Over the last 10 years Tourism Ireland has spent in the region of €413m promoting Ireland as a tourist destination.

In its annual report for 2019, for example, notes to the accounts highlight that expenditure on marketing-related activities amounted to €51.8m during the year. While this is more money than most CMOs could ever dream of spending in any given year, this expenditure on marketing is the raison d’etre for Tourism Ireland in the first place. Without it, our tourism industry would have to fend for itself and the payback to the economy would most likely be a fraction of what it is now or will be in the future.

But the €51.8m invested in 2019 compares with the €57m that Tourism Ireland invested in marketing during 2011 at a time when the industry required a much needed jolt during one of the worst economic recessions in living memory. In the intervening period, the amount it spent on marketing has fluctuated considerably, dropping to as low as €36.8m in 2015. The knock-on effect of this decrease wasn’t felt until 2017 however, when the number of tourists visiting these shores rose by just over 3pc on the previous year, the lowest annual percentage growth in over 10 years.

Thankfully, however, this spend has increased in the intervening period.

Tourism Ireland’s marketing spend, however, only tells part of the story. A 2017 report by the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation noted that a wide range of tourism and hospitality-related organisations, including the likes of Tourism Ireland, Aer Lingus, Ryanair as well as the major hotel groups and operators of tourist attractions, spent a whopping €92m in overseas markets on a variety of marketing and advertising-related activities. Again, further proof of the important role that marketing and advertising plays.

To its credit, the Government, through a number of agencies, has supported the industry with a range of employment and other incentives over the last 11 months. But when it comes to the marketing investment that will be required to reboot, rebuild and ultimately woo tourists to these shores again, it is vital that it commits to giving Tourism Ireland a much bigger budget than ever before.

It will be money well spent.