News Archive

Ireland West Airport Knock’s UK Marketing to Drive Tourism to Ireland’s West and North West!

Ireland West Airport Knock, together with its partner airlines and Tourism Ireland, is rolling-out numerous marketing campaigns in Great Britain targeting customers living within easy reach of the Airport’s eight UK scheduled flight route destinations including Birmingham, Bristol, East Midlands, Glasgow International, London Gatwick, London Luton, London Stansted and Manchester. The joint initiatives are aimed at encouraging British tourists to utilise the opportunity which these low cost short-hop flights present to visit the West and North West region of Ireland.

Having joined forces with Tourism Ireland and the regional Fáilte Ireland West and Northwest tourism authorities, Ireland West Airport Knock has been actively promoting and implementing a number of initiatives to support the routes served by airlines bmibaby, Ryanair and XL.com.


Annette Kearney, Marketing & Route Development Manager says: “Ireland West Airport Knock is committed to its role in aiding the development and promotion of tourism in the West and North West region of Ireland. By actively driving and supporting these joint marketing campaigns together with the tourism authorities as well as our airline partners, it enables us to develop more focused marketing activities as well as levering more spend directly targeted at potential customers living in the regions in the UK which can benefit from convenient, short, low cost flights to the West. We all hope to benefit from this activity and we want to attract more visitors to the region which should see additional knock-on benefits in terms of visitor numbers and tourism spend this year. The Airport’s aim in 2008 is to attract approximately 190,000 British tourists on our flights which will generate a UK tourism spend of circ. €66.5 million.”


A joint campaign with low fares airline bmibaby, Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland West and Northwest will assist the launch of a new direct route from Glasgow International which commenced in February supported with advertising posters in underground tube stations as well as participation in events and media familiarisation trips to the West and North West regions by key journalists to promote the new route. Marketing activities will also include some advertorials in key media in Glasgow as well as media in bmibaby’s other route destinations of Birmingham and Manchester.

To support the welcome re-introduction of Ireland West Knock’s London Gatwick service with new to the Irish market airline, XL.com, one of the UK’s largest travel providers, a separate marketing campaign has been ongoing in the London market for the past number of months supported by Ireland West Airport Knock, Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland West and Northwest. Key initiatives carried out with XL.com included a major print, radio, outdoor and online advertising campaign in the UK, complimented by media familiarisation trips, a number of prize give-aways and sponsorship of key events in and around the London area. The joint campaign will also see more of the same being carried out over a number of months to come, with a major drive towards the corporate and VFR (Visiting Friends and Relatives) market.

Ryanair introduced two new routes in 2007, namely East Midlands and Bristol, to compliment its existing network from Ireland West Knock of daily Luton and Stansted flights. Joint marketing initiatives with the Airport include sponsorship of key Irish events and the inclusion of the routes in the national joint campaign being rolled out by Ryanair and Tourism Ireland. Media familiarisation trips are also being arranged for the newer routes from Bristol and East Midlands which will boost the awareness in the catchment areas on all there is to see and do in the West and Northwest regions of Ireland.