'Family ties' plan for tourism

The Giant's Causeway is Northern Ireland's top tourist attraction

Americans with strong family ties to Northern Ireland will be encouraged to visit the province as part of next year's cross-border tourism strategy.

The province was the focus of the 2005 marketing plans launched by Tourism Ireland and the Northern Ireland Tourist Board (NITB) on Tuesday.

They aim to increase all-island visitor numbers by 5%, rising to 7% for Northern Ireland.

Almost £350,000 extra will go towards promoting the province next year.

'Driving growth'

Announcing the additional funding, Tourism Ireland Chief Executive Paul O'Toole said improved access to Northern Ireland through a host of new air links would help drive growth.

"One of the initiatives in the pipeline is a direct marketing campaign in areas in the US with populations who have strong family connections with Northern Ireland," he said.

A new direct link between Belfast and New York begins operating next year, while links were announced this week between Boston and Shannon, and Chicago and Dublin.

Mr O'Toole said they were developing a marketing programme to support the launch of new flights into the province.

"We have been delighted to partner with Continental, easyJet and many other carriers to secure further new services," he said.

"As we look towards achieving further growth, we recognise the need to increase low-fare access services from Britain, European and US markets, and will be working with our partners to identify access development opportunities."

The development of short breaks and business tourism will be key Alan Clarke Northern Ireland Tourism Board

Mr O'Toole said they were increasingly keen on attracting visitors through e-business.

"We will be aiming to make the island of Ireland a market leader in internet communications, with all products available online, easily accessible and purchasable," he said.

Alan Clarke, NITB chief executive, said that working together with Tourism Ireland had resulted in a "great year for tourism".

He said initial estimates for 2004 were the most encouraging yet, with more than two million total visits to Northern Ireland, an increase of 6%. Holiday visits showed a growth of 14%, to 406,000.

"The challenge now is to sustain this growth. We must continue to give people reasons to visit Northern Ireland, and the development of short breaks and business tourism will be key," he said.

New destinations

In the last year, new flight routes for Northern Ireland's airports have multiplied, especially to destinations in continental Europe.

Easyjet last week announced three new services from Belfast International Airport to Geneva, Palma and Inverness, starting next July.

The low-cost airline has already begun offering flights to Paris, Nice, Malaga and Alicante.

Daily flights between Belfast and Barcelona were announced by Jet2 in August.

In April, the Leeds-based company began operating a service between Belfast International Airport and Prague.

Primeflight began operating twice-daily flights between Belfast and Brussels in March, aimed at business people.

Before these new routes, the only direct flight to continental Europe from Belfast was to Amsterdam.