Written answers

Tuesday, 19 October 2021

Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht

Official Engagements

Photo of Catherine MurphyCatherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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398. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she will report on her recent visit to the United States of America; and the companies or senior officials of companies she met with during this trip. [50558/21]

Photo of Catherine MartinCatherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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I recently joined Tourism Ireland in the United States where I undertook a busy programme of tourism, sporting and cultural engagements to promote Ireland.

As the deputy is aware, COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on Irish tourism. Given that the United States was (pre-COVID) the second-largest source market for tourism to the island of Ireland, worth €1.5bn in 2019, it was important that I travelled to the market as we work to restart tourism from overseas.

I was on hand to launch Tourism Ireland’s new ‘Green Button’ campaign. This new campaign aims to re-start tourism and encourage Americans to book Ireland as their next holiday destination. The €4.1 million campaign is targeting six key gateways and 11 priority cities, to reach and engage audiences who have the highest potential to travel to the island of Ireland. It is scheduled to run until early January 2022.  

I also attended business roundtable lunches with leading travel trade, carrier and media contacts in both Chicago and New York. Attendees included representatives of United Airlines, American Airlines, Aer Lingus, and the US Tour Operators Association among others. I also attended a meeting with Tourism Ireland’s Marketing Partnership Group, who are key representatives of the US travel sector.  More than 20 other tourism operators and commentators were in attendance at these events which had a heavy emphasis on Ireland's readiness to welcome back overseas tourists. 

I met with the organisers of the Ryder Cup to discuss the planning for Ireland's hosting of the 2027 iteration of the event in Limerick. I also met with college football representatives regarding our plans for an annual series of college football games hosted in Dublin, starting in August 2022.

During this important overseas visit I also conducted a series of interviews with Travel, Sport and Diaspora media outlets in Chicago and New York to promote Ireland as holiday destination.

In the culture area of my remit, I held discussions with the organisers of the annual Milwaukee Irish Fest, with the Notre Dame Institute for Irish Studies, and with a number of Irish artists at the Irish Arts Center in New York. As is set out in Global Ireland 2025, the New York Irish Arts Center, founded in 1972, showcases Irish culture through performance, exhibition and education. With the Government’s strong support , it is undertaking an ambitious redevelopment project to construct a new state-of-the-art Irish Arts Center which is now nearing completion. This project is emblematic of the importance of Irish communities and cultural organisations abroad partnering with the Government as it looks to double Ireland’s global footprint. The new Irish Arts Center will be a cultural flagship in a key global city, and will permit established and emerging Irish artists across a range of disciplines to have a permanent creative home in the US.  I was pleased to have the opportunity to receive an update on the project from the Center’s Director.

Overall, I got a great sense of a strong and ongoing connection with Ireland and that people are really looking forward to coming back to visit. There is also a sense that we have handled Covid-19 well and that we are a relatively safe place to visit, thanks in no small measure to our excellent vaccination programme.

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