How do you market Ireland as a tourist destination to Australians? Well, it's not going to be the weather, is it? Tourism Ireland's latest promotion sees it stick to its two big themes of late, Ireland's Ancient East and the Wild Atlantic Way, and plaster images from both up on billboards in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

The all-island tourism marketing body has partnered with Etihad Airways for a joint outdoor campaign, which has the dual aim of raising awareness of Ireland as a holiday destination for 2016 and to add bums on seats on Etihad flights to Dublin, via Abu Dhabi. The campaign, which is running for the month of February, also includes email marketing to some 360,000 potential holidaymakers on the Etihad database.

Ireland also features on the “early bird” section of the Etihad website – reminding Australians why they should put Ireland on their holiday wishlist in 2016.

Some 207,600 people from Australia and New Zealand visited Ireland last year, an increase of 9 per cent on 2014, and Tourism Ireland believes it can keep the momentum going.