Alison Metcalfe, Tourism Ireland’s Head of North America, said:
“We are delighted to welcome the launch by American Airlines of its new non-stop Dallas to Dublin B787 Dreamliner service, which will provide a major boost for both leisure and business tourism from Texas to the island of Ireland. As an island, the importance of frequent, non-stop flights cannot be overstated – they are absolutely critical to achieving growth in inbound tourism. We wish American every success with the new route and we look forward to co-operating with them to maximise the promotion of this new service from Dallas.
“Tourism Ireland has prioritised North America as a market which offers a strong return on investment, in terms of holiday visitors and expenditure. Last year, an estimated 2 million North Americans visited the island of Ireland and we look forward to welcoming more US travellers in 2019 – either directly from, or connecting via, Dallas.”
Notes To Editors
- Tourism Ireland is the organisation responsible for promoting the island of Ireland overseas as a leading holiday destination.
- Tourism is the island of Ireland’s largest indigenous industry; responsible for in excess of 4% of GNP in the Republic of Ireland and employing around 325,000 people across the island.
- In 2018, we welcomed around 11.2 million overseas visitors to the island of Ireland (+6% on 2017), delivering revenue of approximately €6.1 billion (+10%).
- Tourism Ireland’s international website is Ireland.com, 29 market sites available in 11 language versions around the world, which attracted 20+ million visitors in 2018.