Tourism Ireland launches 2025 marketing plans
Overseas tourism spend on the island of Ireland estimated to have reached €7bn in 2024, up over +10% on 2023
Tourism Ireland targets €9bn in overseas tourism spend per year by 2030
New ‘Slow Tourism Month’ to inspire visitors to explore communities, scenery and attractions
Tourism Ireland today launched details of its marketing strategy and plans to promote the island of Ireland overseas in 2025, at an event attended by over 500 tourism industry leaders from around the country.
In 2024, overseas visitor spend grew by over +10%, bringing an estimated €7 billion to the island of Ireland. With ambitions for the longer term, Tourism Ireland envisages overseas tourism revenue can grow from €6.4 billion in 2023 to €9 billion by 2030, with the right strategic supports.
In 2025, Tourism Ireland will invest in an extensive and targeted programme of activity across 13+ overseas source markets. Sustainable development is at the core of Tourism Ireland’s plans for the year ahead, so there will be continued focus on attracting tourists who have ‘value adding tourism traits’ – people who are likely to see more, do more, enjoy more and therefore spend more when they visit.
New for 2025 is ‘Slow Tourism Month’. An estimated half of all visitors to the island of Ireland choose not to use a car. Tourism Ireland will enable more exploration, with trip ideas that allow for dwell time in communities and scenery and that can be enjoyed by rail, bus or with tour partners, winning overnight stays across regions.
Tourism Ireland will also unveil a new global advertising campaign across 13+ overseas markets this year. The organisation will refresh and build on the strong foundations of its ‘Fill your heart with Ireland’ campaign, based on consumer insights – to make the island of Ireland stand out as a ‘bucket list’ destination.
Speaking at the launch, Alice Mansergh, Chief Executive of Tourism Ireland, said: “Overseas tourism to the island of Ireland delivered an estimated €7 billion in revenue in 2024 – up over +10% on 2023 – and, importantly, helped to sustain around 300,000 jobs. We’re ambitious to support growth for local businesses, economies and communities and our target is to grow overseas visitor spend to €9 billion by 2030.
“In any industry there are risks to mitigate and tourism is no different. This year, we will need to take account of the added step that the introduction of the UK’s Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme will bring for visitors to Northern Ireland. The passenger cap at Dublin Airport is top of mind and its review will be vital for tourism.
“However, there is also enormous potential ahead and we are ambitious for growth. In 2025, we will focus on increasing the value of overseas tourism, sustainably supporting economies, communities and the environment – and will do so by inspiring overseas visitors and strengthening strategic partnerships.
“We will be launching a new campaign across 13+ overseas markets to elevate ‘brand Ireland’ and win hearts, minds and trips. We will be collaborating with air and sea carrier partners to support demand for routes that are viable to the regions. With 80% of visitors researching and booking trips online, we will be sharing daily inspiration with our 7.5 million followers on social media and supporting 10 million deep research visits on our website, increasingly optimised for AI. Working with broadcasters around the world, we look forward to TV and streaming shows featuring reasons to visit that will air to key audiences. Sporting moments like The Open at Royal Portrush and the Aer Lingus College Football Classic present key opportunities, with promotional programmes already under way. Festivals create additional moments to spotlight, as we win holidays from overseas visitors to grow the benefits of tourism across the year.”
Notes to Editors:
Below are some highlights of Tourism Ireland’s activity to inspire overseas holidaymakers to visit the island of Ireland in 2025.
- Tourism Ireland will create 1 billion advertising ‘opportunities to see’. A new ‘Fill your heart with Ireland’ campaign will be developed which will ensure high levels of awareness to grow interest and ultimately booking.
- Tourism Ireland’s publicity activity will create 1.6 billion ‘opportunities to see’ messages about the island of Ireland in tier one international media outlets, with a focus on stories showcasing the magic of our regions.
- Tourism Ireland will continue to co-produce high quality broadcast shows which benefit tourism. Upcoming opportunities range from travel content to Halloween documentaries, cycling programmes showcasing our scenery and food-focused broadcasts supporting our food scene.
- Tourism Ireland will be partnering with air and sea carriers to inspire demand for routes that are viable to the regions.
- 2025 is an important year for golf, as Northern Ireland hosts The Open at Royal Portrush in July and we prepare for the Ryder Cup at Adare Manor in 2027. Partnerships with Golf Digest, Golf Channel and Sky Sports will be rolled out to leverage the tourism potential of these prestigious sporting events.
- A strong focus on driving more business to our regions will include a ‘twinning’ initiative – with each of our key overseas markets ‘twinning’ with, and placing a greater focus on, a specific region or area of Ireland.
- A greater focus on driving potential visitors towards Ireland.com, Tourism Ireland’s international website, will lead to 10 million people around the world utilising the site for research. The website is increasingly optimised for AI, to take account of new consumer research behaviours.
- On social media, Tourism Ireland will have 7.5 million followers by year end, allowing for daily content and communication at scale; around 70% of content created for social media will contain regional and seasonal messages.
- Seasonal themes and events will deliver the message that the island of Ireland offers a world-class product all year round. This will include particular emphasis on St Patrick’s Day and Halloween, as well as event-based opportunities like TradFest.
- Tourism Ireland will continue to connect tourism operators across the island of Ireland with overseas travel trade and consumers – via sales platforms, co-operative campaigns and Business Events promotions. The organisation will help put tourism businesses on the global stage, facilitating 30,000 meetings, including 7,500 Business Events meetings and 6,000 golf and luxury tourism meetings, for 750 industry partners from the island of Ireland.
- Tourism Ireland’s strong partnership with Fáilte Ireland and Tourism NI is foundational and all three agencies will continue to work closely this year, pairing product development with overseas marketing and collaborating on key priority projects and activities.