"German Market ... Huge Potential For Irish Tourism" - Minister Hanafin

The Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport, Mary Hanafin T.D. undertook her first overseas tourism promotional visit with a series of engagements in Frankfurt on Monday. Ms Hanafin met with a number of key players from the German travel trade and was interviewed by travel writers from the German travel media as well as meeting with Tourism Ireland staff in Frankfurt on developments in the German travel market,

"I was delighted to be invited by Tourism Ireland to see and hear at first hand how Tourism Ireland is working, with the Irish tourist industry, to promote Ireland as a tourist destination for visitors from Germany.

"It is important to remember that Germany is the world's largest outbound travel market and is the third largest single market after UK and USA. Last year alone almost half a million visitors came from Germany to Ireland with huge benefits for our economy. Our aim is to build on this and obviously I am delighted to help in any way I can," the Minister stated.

Tourism Ireland has prioritised the German market in terms of marketing investment and other resources. 2010 has seen an increase in travel trade activities building on the success of the prestigious Dertour Reiseakademie (Travel Academy) event which was held in Killarney in November 2009 and was attended by approximately 900 German travel professionals.

Minister Hanafin continued: "Irish tourism had a difficult start to 2010 with particularly bad weather in January and February and then the volcanic ash difficulties.

Despite this, I am delighted to see that the tourism agencies and the industry are out there fighting for business and getting the message out that there is never a better time to visit Ireland. The value has never been better and you will have a truly memorable holiday when you arrive.

"Germany has been a key market for Ireland over many years. The unpredictability of currency movements in recent years has reminded us how important it is to make the most of markets in the eurozone, like Germany. The fact that Ireland is being advertised as the ideal holiday location on German television for the first time in many years shows how much effort and focus we are putting into supporting this vital industry. Germany is already Ireland's third most important holiday market to Ireland and if we can build on our existing strengths in this market, it will be money well spent," she concluded.