Tourism Ireland to paint the world green for St. Patrick's Day

by Amy Invernizzi

The Sydney Opera House is one of several buildings that will be green for St. Patrick's Day.

Iconic buildings all over the world will be going green in honor of Ireland's most recognized holiday, St. Patrick’s Day.

Tourism Ireland announced that such famous structures as the Sydney Opera House, the London Eye, the Empire State Building and the CN Tower in Toronto will be flooded in green light in the upcoming weeks to honor the Irish holiday. Tourism Ireland plans to utilize the time leading up to the holiday to showcase Ireland in hopes of attracting visitors to the island in the coming months. They embark on this extravagant promotional venture in hopes of growing visitor numbers to Ireland by 3% this year.

“Over seventy million people around the world claim links with the island of Ireland and St Patrick’s Day is a truly unique opportunity to showcase our wonderful tourism product to a huge audience across the globe, as people instantly identify St Patrick’s Day with Ireland. The agreement to allow us to ‘green’ such iconic buildings and attractions must be a first for any destination and clearly illustrates the goodwill that the Ireland brand generates across the world,” Niall Gibbons, Chief Executive of Tourism Ireland, said in a February 9 press release.

“We will use every opportunity to capitalize on Ireland’s heightened profile to showcase the uniqueness of a holiday on the island – the diversity of our culture and heritage and the friendliness of our people.”

This will be the largest and surely most elaborate promotional program ever to advertise the country to the rest of the world. In addition to covering famous buildings in green, Tourism Ireland plans to embark on large scale promotional events and activities.

“Tourism Ireland’s $1 million St. Patrick’s program will span Britain, mainland Europe, North America, Australia as well as new and developing markets such as China, India and South Africa,” said Gibbons.

In Britain, Tourism Ireland’s largest single market, the company will stage many events to invite citizens to share in the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. Promotions will focus on showcasing various aspects of Irish culture, including music, food, literature, genealogy, sports and festivals. Focusing on nine key railway stations across Britain as well as several popular city centers, it is hoped that Ireland can be promoted in such a way that will inspire intrigue in all parts of the population.

Additional events will take place all over the rest of Europe. Tourism Ireland plans to use a “flash mob” tactic, where entertainers will appear apparently spontaneously to draw more attention from the public.

Travelers passing through Sweden’s Stockholm Central Station will be entertained by Irish music and a Riverdance troupe. Further Irish dancers, musicians, and entertainer, as well as beautiful ads and images promoting Ireland, will be found throughout various major cities all over Europe.

The United States will certainly not be left out of the festivities. A host of activities and events will take place in the coming weeks leading up to St. Patrick’s Day, including two major road shows—one going through Boston, New York and Chicago and the other going through Atlanta, Dallas, and Houston, are scheduled to generate even more popularity for the St. Patrick’s celebration.

This worldwide promotion is all in hopes to spread the word about the amazing island of Ireland, and to generate interest in tourism to the country.

“There will be saturation coverage of the island of Ireland across the airwaves, in newspapers and across digital media. We aim to bring a smile to the world. The message is that there has never been a better time to visit the island of Ireland,” said Gibbons.

Information regarding Ireland and tourism opportunities can be found at Tourism Ireland’s global website: http://www.discoverireland.com