Visit Wexford Reach Showcase Wexford Globally with €6.3million of Coverage in National & International Media

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2013 has been a year of highs for Tourism in Wexford, for the first time in over 10 years Wexford leads the Southeast region with the highest number of overseas visitor numbers and overseas visitor spend. The Visit Wexford group today (Thursday, December 19) also announced that positive publicity achieved for Wexford in 2013 is valued at €6.3 million.

The publicity campaign carried out for Visit Wexford of which the ambition is to achieve as many column inches and news minutes as possible for Wexford across Ireland and the globe on tourism events in Wexford during 2013 achieved €6.3 million in media coverage across Ireland and the globe.

Some of the media highlights include coverage of the internationally recognised JFK50 event. The media campaign resulted in features on FOX News, ABC News, Sky News, and the front page of the Washington Post and PBS National television network in the U.S.

Commenting on the year in Tourism, Peter Wilson, Chairperson of Visit Wexford said “We have had a year of milestones in Wexford this year. The numbers are impressive and it part of a long-term strategy to further build tourism in Wexford. Over 200 Gatherings took place across the county during 2013 and the JFK50 was announced winner of the ‘The Gathering of the Year’ the effort put in by everyone in Wexford involved in all of these gatherings is to be hugely commended.

Visit Wexford is made up of members of the tourism industry in Wexford and we want to get absolutely everyone involved as we know that all of those who possibly may never have been involved in tourism prior to the Gathering really really make a huge difference. Currently we have a website which in 2013 alone reached an audience of 135,000; 92 festivals took place in Wexford in 2013 and all of these are showcased on the site which is updated weekly and we want to build on this.” Peter continued.

One of the roles Visit Wexford has is the provision of communications on tourism in Wexford. In 2013 48 press releases and 25 photocalls on tourism events took place in Wexford and were distributed to national and international media, resulting in 6 hours 33 minutes of national and international television coverage of events in Wexford. Over 200 print articles on tourism events in Wexford in national and international publications, over 100 online articles on tourism events in Wexford and over 10 hours of radio coverage.

During the Wexford Festival Opera the group also organised and hosted an International tour operators event – hosting a showcase of Wexford tourism products to the International Tour Operators Association. And the year was rounded off with the news that the JFK 50 was announced as the ‘Gathering’ of the Year.

Visit Wexford has over 3000 Facebook fans, over 2500 twitter followers online with Wexford events and happenings communicated daily on these accounts.

At the Visit Wexford tourism table work is currently well underway for the 2014 tourism year. The group are now encouraging more and more people to get involved, the Visit Wexford website offers people the opportunity to promote their festival and event for free on the site. Organisers of events can log on and fill in all of their information for a free listing. To create a free listing for your festival or event in Wexford see www.visitwexford.ie or get in touch via hello@visitwexford.ie

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