Tourism

Ireland Voted Best Travel Destination in US Awards

Great news for Irish tourism following the Travel Weekly annual Readers Choice Awards in New York as the country was named ‘Best Destination: Europe’.

Travel Weekly is the biggest weekly newspaper for American travel agents and travel professionals, meaning that Irish tourism should see an increase in footfall coming from North America in the coming year.

For the fourth time in a row Ireland also received an award from Global Traveler. Ireland was named ‘Best Destination’ at the 2015 GT Tested Awards ceremony in Los Angeles. 22,000 readers voted for Ireland as their favorite tourist destination. The luxury magazine has a circulation of almost 110,000.

“These awards are really good news,” said Niall Gibbons, Tourism Ireland’s CEO. “Travellers nowadays have tremendous choice, which makes it more important than ever for us to ensure the island of Ireland stands out from other destinations.”

2015 looking like it’s about to set records for the best year in Irish tourism. With the final tally being taken, it looks as though the number of visitors this year has reached 7.9 million; spending €4.2 billion here during the 12-month period.

However, Tourism Ireland hopes to make 2016 an even bigger year for Irish tourism. They have recently unveiled new marketing plans that includes a Star Wars themed campaign. They expect to attract up to 8.2 million visitors during the coming year.

Ireland is an incredibly popular tourist destination for North American visitors. Tourism Ireland say one in ten transatlantic visitors pass through Ireland. According to Niall Gibborns, “By the end of this year, we will have welcomed about 1.4 million American and Canadian visitors.”

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