The Giant’s Causeway took part in Tourism Ireland’s biggest ever sales mission to China this month.
The delegation of 29 senior representatives from 24 tourism enterprises from around the island of Ireland travelled to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong.
The mission included meetings with hundreds of leading Chinese travel agents and tour operators.
As well as highlighting new flights to Dublin, a key message for Tourism Ireland was the British Irish Visa Scheme – which allows Chinese nationals to visit both Ireland and the UK, including Northern Ireland, using a single visa. Tourism Ireland aims to grow Chinese visitor numbers to 175,000 per year, by 2025 (+150% on 2017).
Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said China is the largest outbound travel market in the world and one that Tourism Ireland is committed to growing over the coming years.
“In 2017, we welcomed an estimated 70,000 Chinese visitors to the island of Ireland; the introduction of direct flights from Beijing and Hong Kong is a major game-changer and offers a real opportunity for us to build on this number. We are confident that we are in a strong position to grow this emerging travel market in 2018 and over the coming years,” he added.
