• 06 Oct, 2010
• Business, Nature

A major promotional drive took place recently in Bristol in the United Kingdom over a three day period highlighting the West Coast of Ireland as a destination for UK residents.

A new partnership between Ireland West Airport Knock, Mayo Naturally Hotels Group and Discover Bundoran came together under a new initiative to highlight the attractions, quality of accommodation and value the West Coast of Ireland has to offer.

The grouping which consisted of over 25 accommodation and attraction providers from the Mayo and Bundoran regions and representatives from Failte Ireland and Ireland West Airport Knock traveled over to Bristol for a three day promotional blitz which involved meetings with key business and trade representatives from the Bristol region as well as a 3 day promotional campaign in two major shopping centres in the Bristol area which involved the distribution  of tailor made ‘voucher booklets’ offering fantastic discounts on a range of hotels and activities in both the Mayo and Bundoran regions. 

The activity was supported by a comprehensive series of press and radio adverts ran in the Bristol media to promote the West Coast of Ireland combined with the creation of a new website www.visitmayoandbundoran.com highlighting the great value offers and attractions available in the West Coast of Ireland.  To support the initiative Ryanair made available fares from just £10 one way from Bristol to Ireland West Airport Knock as well as supplementing with media and online campaigns for the next two months to promote the West Coast of Ireland.

The pilot initiative which is the first of its kind between accommodation and activity providers from Bundoran, Mayo and Ireland West Airport Knock is part of a new initiative to highlight the West Coast of Ireland in key UK markets such as Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds promoting all the West Coast has to offer in terms of the range and quality of accommodation and the abundance of activities available for all ages as well as promoting the low fares access available from these cities direct to Ireland West Airport Knock with the likes of Ryanair, Aer Lingus and bmibaby.

Commenting on the initiative, Donal Healy, Marketing Manager, Ireland West Airport Knock, said ‘We are delighted to be part of this fantastic new initiative putting the West Coast of Ireland firmly on the map in the UK in terms of the quality and great value accommodation and range of activities on offer in this part of Ireland and highlighting the low fares air access.  There is huge untapped markets in areas such as Bristol. Leeds and Manchester who are not familiar with this part of Ireland and initiatives like this can act as a great driver boosting tourism and business traffic to the region which will hopefully lead to increased business for all the partners in this grouping as well as being a welcome boost to the local economy.  I thank all partners from Mayo and Bundoran who have put in the hard work and effort to get this initiative off the ground and look forward to working with them in the future in both developing and building on this campaign’

Tracey Ferguson, from Discover Bundoran commented, ‘This was a great opportunity to work in cooperation to promote the easy access to Mayo, Donegal, Leitrim and Sligo through Ireland West Airport Knock. It’s the people that visitors always want to connect with and they’ll get the best when they visit the West’

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