IRELAND HAS BEEN voted the “Most popular destination 2010″ by the readers of a leading Chinese newspaper.

Annual award ceremony, The Special Trip: World Travel Awards, celebrates excellence in travel. It is organised by popular Shanghai newspaper The Oriental Morning Post, which has a readership of 400,000: Votes from both readers of the newspaper and travel specialists from across China showed that Ireland was clear favourite this year.

The news comes just weeks after readers of the respected travel website Frommer’s.com voted Ireland as their favourite holiday destination.

Susan Li of Tourism Ireland accepted the award, saying:

We are absolutely delighted that Ireland has been singled out for this prestigious award… I am confident that this award will enhance the reputation of the island of Ireland and help to attract more Chinese visitors in 2011 and beyond.

It certainly seems that Ireland is gaining a good reputation among Chinese tourists; a recent survey carried out by Beijing newspaper Life Style – which has a readership of 300,000 – showed that readers chose Ireland as the holiday destination with the “most potential” for 2011.

Meanwhile, Tourism Ireland also received an award for the Most Creative Destination by national newspaper Global Times, in recognition of the promotional campaigns in China.

The news will no doubt be welcomed by Ireland’s beleaguered tourism sector, which has seen the numbers of visitors plummet in the last year.