Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The tourism agencies are represented on the London 2012 co-ordinating group which I chair and which is looking at opportunities for Ireland from the proximity of this year's Olympic and Paralympic Games in London. Tourism Ireland has been rolling out a busy programme of promotional activity to target a wide range of potential visitors around the world in the run-up to and during the 2012 games. The programme includes working with a number of the official agencies and official sponsors of the games to bring incentive and corporate meetings to Ireland during the games. The 2012 games have recently featured on the Tourism Ireland media room website in order to attract accredited and non-accredited media to Ireland before, during and after the London games.

In order to secure additional business for Ireland, both as a result of displacement and additional long-haul opportunities, Tourism Ireland is working closely with tour operators in overseas tourism markets. The visa waiver scheme presents additional opportunities which are being explored in emerging markets. The organisation is also working with official games tour operators in a number of markets to assist them in offering package extensions to Ireland.

Tourism Ireland in London is working on an extensive consumer marketing campaign to target displaced Londoners and those wanting to escape the games. The organisation is also targeting opportunities to capture displaced conferences. There is a specific opportunity around golf as this will be introduced as an Olympic sport in 2016 and Ireland is currently the home of major champions. A campaign around this theme is currently being developed.

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