Tourism Ireland's trade, industry and business tourism manager, David Wood, spoke to Travel Bulletin about the island of Ireland's year of seasonal celebrations and elevating its cultural icons to tourism needle-movers
Speaking at World Travel Market in London, David reflected on several campaigns that spotlighted Ireland's icons, from St. Patrick's Day-centric activations to a new Ireland Unrushed campaign in the summer and activity spotlighting Ireland as the home of Halloween in the late autumn.
"Those campaigns all sat beautifully together in terms of a launch at the front end of the traditional season and an extension at the back end. The timing of St. Patrick's Day is perfect for us and travel agents: all eyes are on Ireland.
"Ireland Unrushed, which was a new initative, embodied a really important focus for us as a destination. We think of environmental sustainability a lot, but there is also economic and social sustainability where tourism can do so much... it was a great success for us. The real core idea of it was getting under the skin of the destination and really getting to know the island... it was very successful, and there are already plans in place for 2026 to continue that messaging going forward."
Naturally, Ireland's accessibility to the UK makes it an exciting proposition for Brits looking for a short-haul adventure. "In terms of agents, and the trade generally, where we can hold our own is being so easy to get to... that short distance is so convenient but gets you to a totally different travel experience than you can find on your own shores.
"Yes, you've got the comfort of English being the primary language, but culturally, it's so different. Time and time again, consumers continue to tell us about the welcome they get and the friendliness of the Irish people."
Ireland's status as a common travel area is another big tick in the box for its accessibility. "Not everyone knows about Ireland's accessibility for free travel in and out, even among the trade, so that's something we continue to push. And then there are so many great experiences for agents to consider selling to their clients or adding to their programmes.
"We've got our icons like the Guinness Storehouse and Titanic Belfast, but there are always new experiences coming on stream. Even for travel trade coming to the likes of WTM, they will be able to engage with new reasons to sell the destination to their clients."
David highlighted not only Tourism Ireland's dedicated trade staff, with teams based in London and Glasgow, but its dedicated agent portal, www.tourismireland.com/trade, and trade e-zine. "All the building blocks are there in our resources: accommodation, experiences, regions, itineraries, and operator news.
"For any of the trade doing campaigns promoting the destination or Ireland packages on their own channels, they can access Ireland's Content Pool at www.irelandscontentpool.com, free of charge."
2026 looks to be equally exciting for team Tourism Ireland. Along with the return of Ireland Unrushed in some form and less than four months until St. Patrick's Day, the 40th anniversary of Derry Halloween will undoubtedly call for spooky celebration.
"From a B2B perspective we continue to do really well; any sentiment we hear from agents and particularly tour operators is really, really positive, so we'll look forward to even more of that next year."
David spoke to Travel Bulletin at World Travel Market in London, which took place from November 4th to 6th, 2025.
