Ireland and Gulf draw closer through tourism

The Life: Ireland has four main tourist markets, most of which are on its doorstep. But it is reaching out to other regions, and one of its targets is the UAE.

Traffic moves along O' Connell Street in Dublin, Ireland. Aidan Crawley / Bloomberg

With almost 4.5 million people, Ireland is by no means a population heavyweight. But if nations were judged solely on the size of their fan base on Facebook, the Republic of Ireland would be the world's second-largest nation after Australia.

"We have just opened our Arabic Facebook site," says Niall Gibbon, the chief executive of Tourism Ireland. "Social media is very important in this region [Middle East]."

Mr Gibbon recently accompanied Leo Varadkar, the Irish minister for transport, tourism and sport, on a trip to the UAE. It coincided with the Volvo Ocean Race and the launch of Emirates Airline's direct service to Ireland.

Ireland's most established markets are Britain, the US, France and Germany, but it has started to reach out to other regions such as Asia and the Middle East.

"The numbers coming into Ireland increased by about 7.5 per cent last year, which is a good result," says Mr Varadkar.

"But the new and emerging markets [yielded] an 18 per cent increase, so even though it's a small base, the increase is very big, so we see a lot of potential there for keeping it going," he says.

Ireland had about 30,000 visitors from the Gulf last year and aims to increase the volume by 10 per cent annually by boosting its presence in this region. The UAE is chief among the countries it is targeting.

"Generally, it was decided that this is the centre of activity in the Gulf region," says Mr Varadkar. "A lot of Arabs travel to Europe, and they travel to London in particular. Ireland is only an hour away and offers many of the attractions that people like to see in Europe."

Four years ago, Ireland had no official office in the Emirates, and anyone wishing to fly to the republic had to route through another country. Today, Abu Dhabi is home to an Irish embassy and Tourism Ireland headquarters for the GCC area.

The UAE's airlines now also offer 17 direct flights a week after last week's launch of Emirates Airline's new route.

"The flights are one thing, but what we are doing with Emirates and Etihad is joint marketing, getting Ireland into their brochures," says Mr Varadkar.

As part of that, Etihad is offering 15 per cent off all return flights to Dublin, as well as other discounts and package deals.

UAE nationals need visas to enter Ireland, but Mr Varadkar says the government would be willing to waive the requirement - if Britain agreed. "An Irish person coming to the Emirates doesn't need a visa [beforehand]," he says. "We don't really see any reason why that shouldn't be the case the other way. But whatever we do, we have to agree with Britain because we [have a common] travel area."

And being the last stop on the Volvo Ocean Race, Ireland did not let the competition's UAE stopover slip by without celebrating links between the two countries. Last weekend at Destination Village in Abu Dhabi, Mr Varadkar and other Irish delegates took part in an Irish day featuring food, dancing and a century-old Irish sailing boat. In exchange, six Arabian dhows will be sent to the city of Galway in Ireland for the race finish in July.

"The mayor came out [to Abu Dhabi] and there were a lot of people from the sailing community in Galway. To see their boat coming out here was a very proud [moment] for them. It got covered on national television back home," Mr Gibbon says.

Tomorrow, the yachts are due to leave the capital for their next leg of the race.

twitter: Follow our breaking business news and retweet to your followers. Follow us