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Heritage Island Educational 2007
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Thursday 19th-Saturday 21st April will see this year’s Heritage Island Educational visit Ireland West. Over 40 leading tour operators and centre managers will take part in the tour, which will include some of Ireland West’s most prestigious visitor attractions.
Heritage centres visited over the three days will include Belvedere House & Gardens, Strokestown Park, Lough Key Forest & Leisure Park, King House Interpretive Galleries & Museum, Arigna Mining Experience, Westport Heritage Town, Kylemore Abbey & Garden, Dan O’Hara’s Heritage & History Centre, Dartfield Horse Museum and Locke's Distillery Museum. The group will overnight in Sligo on Thursday and Oranmore on the Friday.
The Heritage Island familiarisation trip is an excellent forum for networking and updating product knowledge, providing a key opportunity for centre managers to meet with travel trade programming itineraries to Ireland. |
Support for this year’s tour has been kindly given by Fáilte Ireland, Fáilte Ireland West, Fáilte Ireland North West and Fáilte Ireland East Coast & Midlands region.
For further information on the tour or a full itinerary please contact the office at tel: +353 1 236 6890.
Pictured above: The Heritage Island group pictured at The Old Inn, Crawfordsburn, Co. Down on the 2006 Educational.
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Visitor Attractions Invest over €1 million on e-Marketing and Web Development |
Heritage Island’s 88 visitor attractions invested more than €1 million on web development and e-marketing during 2006.
Heritage and culture are the main reasons why visitors come to Ireland. Heritage Island centres provide the tourist with an array of interesting, educational and informative places to visit during their stay. It is of utmost importance that these attractions keep pace with new trends in tourism, particularly on the Internet.
The main areas of spend focused on upgrading current websites, developing new websites, search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click advertising. Significant investment was also made in new ticketing software to facilitate on-line bookings, and the inclusion of virtual tours.
Speaking about the findings, Steven Roberts, Marketing Director of Heritage Island said: “The Internet is a key planning tool for visitors, and a strong web presence is vital for Ireland’s heritage sector. Our research highlights the significant investment that visitor attractions and heritage centres have made in this area during the past 12 months.”
Pictured right: A screenshot of www.IrelandVisitorDiscounts.com |
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Ireland’s Cultural Explorer 2007
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Heritage Island has launched its Ireland’s Cultural Explorer brochure for 2007. Featuring 130 culture and heritage venues, the Explorer provides visitors to Ireland with a range of things to see and do.
This year’s Explorer has been broadened to include eleven crafts and lifestyle centres. These include such well-known sites as Nicholas Mosse Pottery, National Craft Gallery, and The Burren Perfumery.
Many of the National Cultural Institutions are also featured for 2007, including the National Museum, National Library and National Concert Hall.
Aimed at individual visitors, the Explorer has a print run of 150,000 copies. A wide distribution network is in place, ranging from FIT tour operators, Car rental companies, ferries and Tourism Ireland market offices, to hotels, guesthouses, festivals, tourist offices and the Heritage Island network of attractions.
An on-line version is available at www.IrelandVisitorDiscounts.com, with interactive map, centre images and information on all 130 venues. Visitors can print off a free Discount Pass, which they use during their visit to Ireland.
Both the on-line pass and brochure are worth up to Eur400 in discounts and savings on admission price at the featured venues.
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Holiday World Dublin |
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Heritage Island took a large stand to promote its visitor attractions and Heritage Towns at the Holiday World consumer fair in Dublin. Running from 25th to 28th January, the show attracts over 50,000 domestic consumers annually.
Traditionally the first show of 2007, Holiday World provides a good opportunity to meet with domestic consumers over the four days. The trade night, held on the Thursday (25th) is also useful for renewing acquaintances with travel trade and industry personnel who attend. |
Over 20 Heritage Island members piggybacked on our stand to help distribute literature and promote their individual attractions, and we were delighted with the number of centres who joined us for the trade night.
Pictured above (l-r): Deirdre O'Brien-Tullamore Dew, Steven Roberts-Heritage Island, Maeve Kingston-Heritage Island, Sile McNulty-Goodwin-Dublin's City Hall, Miriam Somers-Heritage Island, John O'Donoghue-Minister for Arts, Sport & Tourism, Maeve Martin-Kelly-Adare Heritage Centre, Shaun Quinn-Fáilte Ireland, Frieda O'Connell-Irish National Stud, Maureen Ledwidth-Holiday World Show.
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Heritage Island members promoted at US, UK & European Shows
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February and March saw Heritage Island promoting its members at a wide range of consumer, lifestyle and trade shows overseas. This is an important part of our marketing strategy. Meeting consumers and travel trade face to face provides essential feedback on the performance of individual markets, creates new business, increases our network of contacts and facilitates improved word of mouth.
These shows included:
o A German Coach and Group Workshop in Killiney Castle, on Friday 23rd February.
o Philadelphia Flower Show, USA, 4-11 March: One of the biggest garden shows in the USA, and the largest indoor flower show in the world. Heritage Island took a prominent stand with Ireland’s Blue Book in the main Irish garden area. 7,000 brochures were distributed.
o British Travel Trade Fair, Birmingham, 13-14 March: One of the most important shows for meeting UK tour operators and travel trade. Heritage Island took a stand in the Ireland section with members joining us both days. A list of all contacts made at the show has been circulated to members.
o TUR Gothenburg, Sweden, 22-25 March: The largest consumer and trade show in Sweden and an excellent opportunity to promote to a market which grew 25% in 2006 and has seen increased flight access to Ireland in the past 12 months.
o ITOA Workshop, Dublin, 29 March: A good opportunity to update members of the Irish Tour Operators Association on new events and developments with Heritage Island members.
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