For the 9th year in a row, Tourism Ireland has won the Best Destination Award from Travel Weekly’s Reader’s Choice Awards. Travel Weekly is the leading newspaper for American travel agents and professionals and its thousands of readers voted for the various categories over the summer.
Beating off tough competition from European hotspots like Italy, France, Greece, Spain, and Croatia – Ireland took the number one spot in the ‘best destination in Europe’ category and hasn’t skipped a beat since 2014.
Accepting the award in New York, Alison Metcalfe, Tourism Ireland’s Head of North America, said: “We are delighted that Ireland has been singled out for the ninth year in a row for this prestigious award. Travellers nowadays have tremendous choice, which makes it more important than ever for us to ensure the island of Ireland stands out from other destinations – so this award is really good news, as we prepare to kick off another extensive and targeted promotional drive in 2023.”
The United States is a particularly important market for tourism to Ireland, likely because of the extensive Irish roots across America. In 2019 alone, 1.7 million American visitors brought in €1.6 billion to the Irish economy. As for international tourists, 11.3 million visitors delivered over €5.9 billion in revenue.
Alison Metcalfe continued: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank our travel trade partners across the United States – who continue to play a hugely important role in helping us promote the island of Ireland. I would also like to acknowledge the hugely important contribution of our tourism partners from the island of Ireland, who joined us on the ground in the US this year, helping to spread the word about why Ireland is such a great choice for a vacation. We look forward to working together again in 2023.”
Watch the interview with Irish America Co-founder and Editor in Chief, Patricia Harty, and Alison Metcalfe below.
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