As we plan for 2024, it is very important to look back and review the various activities that the Tourism Team here in Wicklow County Council has been busy working on. See below some of the projects and achievements over the previous 12 months.
EcoTrail Wicklow
EcoTrail Wicklow is proving to be a fantastic promotional tool for County Wicklow. The three-day event attracted more than 1400 participants representing 47 different nationalities. With the support of Failte Ireland, an extensive campaign was created in 2023 with yearlong promotional activities that included the following:
- Promotional trips: launch at EcoTrail Paris (March), promotion at EcoTrail Copenhagen (April) and EcoTrail Oslo (May). Stand at Snowdonia Mountain Marathon (July), Festival de Templiers, France (October).
- Ads and Editorials on dedicated press: Outsider Magazine (Ireland), Nature Trail Mag (France), Revista Trail (Spain), Women’s Running Mag (UK).
- Attract influencers and journalists: Hillary Allen (US), Yoann Stuck (France), Tina Chantrey (UK), Fatima Painda (UK), Elisa is Running (France).
More info on EcoTrail Wicklow at http://wicklow.ecotrail.com
Wicklow Passport
The Wicklow Passport is a great tool to encourage visitors to travel around the County. The Wicklow Passport was sold online throughout the year or distributed for free at various events such as the Holiday World Show in January or the Tinahely Agri Show in August. We have created a series of portable display units that are used at key locations around the county and at various events to promote the Passport. The Wicklow Passport has caught the imagination of many people from around the world who have become Wicklow Ambassadors having collected more than 15 stamps; We have new Ambassadors from the US, Brazil, South Africa, Italy, Germany and more.
- Get your Passport at http://visitwicklow.ie/passport
Digital Promotions
Special focus is given to the promotion of Wicklow through the various digital platforms. VisitWicklow is very active on social media mostly on Instagram and Facebook. Visitwicklow.ie remains Wicklow’s most successful website for tourism promotion for the county recording high volumes of daily visits and achieving top ranking on search engines. From October to December, VisitWicklow ran an extensive digital campaign promoting Halloween, Mid-Term Break, the Wicklow Passport and Christmas in Wicklow. The campaign enjoyed 1.7m impressions, with a reach of 332,000, Engagement of 65,000 and 23,000 clicks.
Online Blogs and Stories
Each month, a series of blogs are produced and posted on the visitwicklow.ie website. Each post reflects a special theme, interest, or seasonality. Entries include stories such as Wicklow Ambassador’s interviews, top things to see and do in various Wicklow towns or villages, top Wicklow walks or mountain bike trails, heritage stories, Halloween or Christmas in Wicklow and many more. Those blogs are then pushed through the VisitWicklow social media channels and ezine. Last year, some stories were featured on the local and national press as well as international media through Tourism Ireland’s network or EcoTrail activities.
International Promotion
Over the years, we have created some strong links with Tourism Ireland, and we are regularly requested to help in putting itineraries together and welcome journalists and influencers from all over the world. For example, in April 2023, we welcomed Volodia Petropavlovsky, Editor of Trek Magazine and Grands Reportage, to walk for five days along the Wicklow Way. Both publications are leading outdoor magazines in France with a combined print run of 90,000 copies! Subsequently, Wicklow enjoyed a 13 pages feature with stunning imagery of the County. Wicklow was also one of the two guests invited by Tourism Ireland Paris on the 50 minutes radio programme ‘Le Monde a Découvrir’ on French ‘Sud Radio’ channel. Similarly, Wicklow was invited by Spanish national radio station RNE Radio 5, to talk about Wicklow on the programme ‘Caminantes’ focussing on walking trails. See Volodia’s itinerary or listen to the various shows at links below:
- Volodia along the Wicklow Way: https://visitwicklow.ie/wicklow-way-itinerary-featured-in-top-french-outdoors-magazines/
- Sud Radio – Le Monde a Découvrir,: https://dai.ly/x8q3rc2
- RNE – Caminantes, Wicklow Way : https://www.rtve.es/play/audios/caminantes/caminantes-wicklow-way/6823495/
- RNE – Caminantes, Glendalough: https://www.rtve.es/play/audios/caminantes/caminantes-valle-glendalough/6829248/
Dublin Gazette
Dublin remains Wicklow’s largest market for visitors and in May of 2023, we partnered with the Dublin Gazette and organised a Wicklow Passport itinerary: We sent Therese and her mom on a three-day adventure around Wicklow. The fun and discovery filled experience was recorded and shared on a 6-page editorial on the Dublin Gazette generating extensive exposure for Wicklow and the Wicklow Passport.
- See full itinerary and read the article at https://visitwicklow.ie/3-days-wicklow-passport-itinerary-dublin-gazette/
Tourism Displays
Brochure print and distribution has proven extremely costly and time consuming, with the featured information becoming quickly out of date. We all walk around with a smartphone and Covid has increased the use of QR Codes. With those elements in mind, VisitWicklow has created a series of A4 posters to be printed and displayed. The posters include a short introduction of various tourism related themes, strong imageries and each include a QR code that visitors can scan to discover detailed information on the relevant theme. We have partnered with a few locations that are displaying the posters and we are monitoring how much the codes are being scanned and used. If proven useful, there are tremendous opportunities to enhance the network of locations where those posters can be displayed. Such initiative would increase awareness of the local tourism offering while reducing the cost of print and distribution and offering a more sustainable alternative.
