The west of Ireland is to be rebranded as part of a drive to woo tourists back to the Atlantic seaboard.
The initiative, by Ireland-West Tourism, follows a strategic review of tourism marketing and promotion. This identified a need to create a new visual identity for the region, which covers Galway, Mayo and Roscommon.
Tourism is worth almost €2 billion annually to the west, but an analysis of figures for the region has shown a dramatic decline in specialist holidays, including walking and angling, while Irish people are now spending more money abroad than visitors are spending here.
The decline involves a 21 per cent drop in holiday bed-nights in the west since 1999, compared to 3 per cent nationally, and almost half a million fewer bed-nights for angling and walking holidays in the past five years.
The analysis also shows that the industry has become very fragmented. It says significant change is required if the west is to pull itself up, or - to quote Ireland-West's new chief executive John Concannon - move off its "burning platform".
Although the landscape is under severe pressure from planning in certain areas, the new branding is based on a belief that Ireland's west coast is the best holiday destination on the island.
The area is to be sold not just as a region, but as a "unique experience in the vibrant heart of Ireland".
One of the tourism body's key objectives is to co-ordinate the work of a plethora of organisations set up in recent years to market certain areas.
The initiative, which was announced last night in Galway by Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Éamon Ó Cuív, involves a new website and web strategy with online bookings in partnership with Fáilte Ireland.
A new regional guidebook and holiday planner and a new calendar of events covering the three counties has also been published.
The calendar covers well-known events such as the Galway Races and Galway Arts Festival, but also smaller community-based festivals such as Patrún on Inis Mór on the Aran Islands in June, Clare Regatta in July and the Curlew Walking Club Festival in Roscommon in September. The calendar will be updated constantly on the new www.irelandwest.ie website.
Ireland-West Tourism recently announced a new funding boost for the Galway Arts Festival, which will involve marketing it abroad.
Under this initiative the festival's programme is to be published at functions in New York and London for the first time, with targeted advertising emphasising the increase in access by air to the west of Ireland through Shannon, Knock in Co Mayo and Galway.
