Tourism Ireland has launched a brand new Arabic website aimed at raising awareness of Ireland’s unique tourism offering and enticing more GCC residents to visit the island of Ireland in 2014.

The new website Ireland.com/ar-ar, follows the launch of its English equivalent early last year and is the latest example of Tourism Ireland’s continued investment in the Gulf region.

With a year on year increase of approximately 7 per cent in GCC visitor numbers to the island of Ireland, the tourism board has placed more focus on communicating directly to residents in the region, with particular attention to online platforms.

Thomas Redmond, Tourism Ireland’s representative in the Middle East, said: “Online communication is increasingly important for Tourism Ireland when engaging with visitors from the GCC.”

“The new Arabic website is an extension of our already robust e-communications strategy which includes a combined following of 28,000 social media fans on Facebook and Twitter. All communication is carried in English and Arabic and the new website will provide a valuable resource for GCC visitors to Ireland as it is updated with local content relevant to local users.

“Approximately 45,000 visitors from GCC countries visited the island of Ireland in 2013, a 7 per cent rise on the previous year. With such a successful year in tourism last year, we are delighted to report that growth in 2014 shows no signs slowing down, in fact the number of Irish visa applications from the GCC in quarter one has increased by 22 per cent in comparison to the same period last year.

“We are positive that the new Arabic website will help us extend our reach in the region and encourage more visitors from the region to travel to Ireland to explore its unique tourism offering in 2014,” Redmond added.

The Arabic site gives comprehensive, up-to-the-minute updates for Middle Eastern visitors with culturally curated exclusive content.  The site is backed by a strategic social media strategy which includes GCC focused Twitter and Facebook pages that have more than 14,000 followers each, communicating offers and updates in both English and Arabic, as well as stunning imagery and videos of Ireland’s iconic locations.

Tourism Ireland’s global social media presence has more than 1.24 million fans on Facebook – it is the second most popular tourism board, after Australia, on the social networking site.  Having such a huge fan-base is significant because each fan has an average of 200 friends, making Tourism Ireland just one degree of separation (or just one click away) from having its message shared with 250 million people around the globe.

Tourism Ireland is also gearing up to exhibit at this year’s Arabian Travel Market next month. The Tourism Board will have a stand in the European destinations pavilion and will be joined by three Irish suppliers (Brown Thomas, The Doyle Collection and The Merrion Hotel, Dublin).

A key message for this year’s exhibition will be the launch of Ireland’s newest tourism product, the Wild Atlantic Way, which is set to become the world’s longest defined coastal touring route. – TradeArabia News Service