THE MINISTER OF State for Tourism and Sport, Michael Ring, has urged Londoners to leave the English capital during the Olympics and come to Ireland as part of a new tourism campaign.
The campaign launched today in association with Tourism Ireland is being targeted at London residents who may be put out by the presence of the Olympic games in the capital between 27 July and 12 August.
The ‘Escape the Madness’ campaign is a €500,000 push to get more tourists into Ireland this summer that will see ads placed on the London Underground and in the Evening Standard newspaper.
“The Olympics is a great sporting occasion but the eight million Londoners are going to have great difficulty,” Ring told RTÉ Radio’s News at One today.
“They are expecting thousands upon thousands of people. There will be 18 million extra journeys on the tubes and people that are living in London and going about their day-to-day life are going to find it difficult for these few weeks.”
Ring said that Ireland had lots to offer Londoners and said that the Tourism Ireland campaign would be targeting them not only through advertising but through social media like Facebook and Twitter.
He said: “We have everything to offer. If people want to come for a nice weekend, a nice weekend to any part of Ireland, people can come. We have have beautiful walks and scenery, we have beautiful food and many, many things to do.”
The Minister added that Aer Lingus would be putting on attractive prices at the same time and would also be advertising in the UK in an attempt to entice Londoners across the Irish Sea.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say