St Patricks Day 2020: Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, Brendan Griffin TD was pictured today with Fáilte Ireland’s Head of Festivals Ciara Sugrue, and Celtic Steps Dancer, Clifford as preparations get underway for this year’s St Patrick’s Day 2020 celebrations in Cork, Limerick, and Killarney. Photo: Valerie O’Sullivan
Ireland supports Limerick as ‘the’ place to celebrate St Patricks Day 2020
Last year, Fáilte Ireland announced major funding to help support and develop St Patrick’s Day events over the next three years in locations across the country, a significant opportunity to grow tourism and extend the season. Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, Brendan Griffin TD was pictured with Fáilte Ireland’s Head of Festivals Ciara Sugrue as preparations get underway for this year’s St Patricks Day 2020 celebrations in Limerick.
Speaking about the importance of St Patricks Day 2020, Minister of State Griffin said: “Festivals and events play a critical role in delivering brilliant visitor experiences and St Patrick’s Day 2020 provides a significant opportunity to attract overseas visitors to Ireland outside the traditional peak tourism season. I look forward to seeing a great day of celebrations in Limerick.”
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This year’s Limerick St. Patrick’s festival will be greener than usual, celebrating Limerick’s designation as a European Green Leaf City for 2020. The St. Patrick’s Day 2020 parade theme will be ‘Our Future is Green’ and businesses, community, sporting, and voluntary groups are being asked to showcase their green credentials as part of the celebrations. 2020 also marks the 50th Anniversary of Limerick’s International Band Championship which is part of the St. Patrick’s festival and 21 bands, including five from the US will compete in this year’s competition.
Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, Brendan Griffin TD was pictured today with Fáilte Ireland’s Head of Festivals Ciara Sugrue, Erin Bottomley, Fáilte Ireland, Celtic Steps Dancer, Saoirse Clifford, David Rae and Róisín Ryan of Celtic Steps, as preparations get underway for this year’s St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in Limerick. Photo: Valerie O’Sullivan.
Fáilte Ireland’s Head of Festivals, Ciara Sugrue, added: “We are positioning Ireland as ‘the’ place to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. A sizeable number of visitors go to Dublin every year for the St Patrick’s Festival but as part of our strategy to spread the benefits of tourism, we also want to develop St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in locations across the country.
We have been working with the festival organisers on a development plan for the festival over the last few months and, with a strong international proposition, we believe that Limerick’s St Patrick’s Day celebrations have the potential to motivate significant numbers of overseas visitors.”
As the National Tourism Development Authority, Fáilte Ireland has identified festivals as a key component for tourism growth. The tourism development body is aiming to grow overseas visitors coming to Ireland to attend a festival to 300,000 by 2022. This growth is expected to generate €150 million in revenue. Taking place outside the traditional peak tourism season combined with the geographical spread of celebrations across Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day provides a significant opportunity to grow tourism and extend the season.
As the National Tourism Development Authority, Fáilte Ireland’s role is to support the long-term sustainable growth in the economic, social, cultural and environmental contributions of tourism to Ireland. Tourism is of critical importance to the national economy and to regional development and employment. The sector generates revenue of €7.5 billion annually and supports 260,000 jobs nationwide while contributing €1.7 billion to the Exchequer.
They work in partnership with Government, State agencies, Local Authorities, representative bodies, and industry, to develop tourism across Ireland by creating destination development plans and networks, investing in infrastructure, activities, visitor attractions and festivals. Fáilte Ireland also provides consumer and buyer insights, mentoring, business supports and training programmes to help tourism businesses innovate and grow.
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