Podcast 70: Discover Ireland's Wonderful West marketing campaign in US

This podcast was recorded in New York on May 1st at the launch of the new campaign 'Discover Ireland's Wonderful West'. The campaign was designed to highlight the many attractions of the Western regions from Kerry to Donegal, including ease of direct access from many gateway cities, the good value fares and inclusive packages available, as well as showcasing a range of compelling offers from local industry. Advertising, direct marketing, eMarketing, lifestyle and media promotions, publicity and co-operative activity with carriers, tour operators and industry partners all form part of the campaign. This will be additional activity over and above Tourism Ireland's core overseas marketing programme for 2008. The new campaign focuses mainly on the US market which is the most lucrative in terms of spend and length of stay; €2.4m will be spent in the US. It will capitalise on the direct services to Shannon this year by four major carriers (Aer Lingus, Continental, Delta and US Airways) from six important gateways (New York, Boston, Chicago, Newark, Atlanta and Philadelphia). While direct transatlantic access into Shannon Airport will be reduced in peak season this year, there is still a considerable capacity of 6,700 seats per week to target. In the podcast I interview representatives from Tourism Ireland, Failte Ireland as well as Irish trade participants and attendees representing US tour operators who feature Ireland.