{"id":909234,"date":"2026-04-21T16:20:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T16:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/909234\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T16:20:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T16:20:27","slug":"tourism-ireland-leads-sales-blitz-to-the-united-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/909234\/","title":{"rendered":"Tourism Ireland leads sales blitz to the United States"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/best-of-ireland-21-04.png\" class=\"image-article-1\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Tourism Marketing<\/p>\n<p>Tourism Ireland leads sales blitz to the United States<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Best of Ireland\u2019 sales mission visits Chicago, Raleigh, Washington DC and Philadelphia<\/p>\n<p>\n\t&amp;nbspWed 21st April 2026<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/nav_bar_px.jpg\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 12px; \"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/best-of-ireland-21-04.png\" class=\"image-article-1\"\/>\t<\/p>\n<p>\nPictured: Tourism companies from Ireland and the US on day one of Tourism Ireland\u2019s sales mission to the United States, in Chicago, with Ruth Moran (front, left); Alison Metcalfe (front, centre) and Paul McDonagh (back, right), all Tourism Ireland.\n<\/p>\n<p>TTourism Ireland, together with a delegation of 14 tourism companies from Ireland, five US tour operators and two airlines \u2013 Aer Lingus and United Airlines \u2013 is undertaking a sales mission to the United States this week. <\/p>\n<p>The \u2018Best of Ireland\u2019 sales blitz is visiting the key cities of Chicago, Raleigh, Washington DC and Philadelphia. The schedule includes a B2B event in each city, featuring interactive presentations to showcase Ireland and hundreds of meetings with key US travel professionals. It\u2019s a valuable opportunity to inspire and influence the US travel agents, helping to deliver more regional and longer-stay business for Ireland in 2026 and beyond. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Alison Metcalfe, Tourism Ireland\u2019s Head of North America<\/strong>, said: \u201cThis week\u2019s \u2018Best of Ireland\u2019 sales mission to Chicago, Raleigh, Washington DC and Philadelphia provides an excellent platform to connect our tourism partners from Ireland with key US travel professionals \u2013 inspiring those travel professionals about what Ireland has to offer and, importantly, to encourage them to include the destination in their future programmes and recommend it to their clients. We\u2019ll be shining a spotlight on the many things to see and do on a holiday in Ireland in 2026 and beyond. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cDirect, convenient and affordable air access is a key driver of visitor growth, particularly from the United States. This summer will see direct flights from a record 23 gateways across the US, including the newly launched Raleigh-Durham to Dublin service operated by Aer Lingus, making it easier than ever for American holidaymakers to visit Ireland.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tourismireland.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/p>\n<p>\t<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/tourismireland.jpg\" style=\"width: 100%; height: auto; \"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=Tourism+Ireland+leads+sales+blitz+to+the+United+States+%40HotelNews_ie%0ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.hotelnews.ie%2Farticles%2F2026%2Ftourismireland%2Fbest-of-ireland-us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/shareArticle?mini=true&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hotelnews.ie%2Farticles%2F2026%2Ftourismireland%2Fbest-of-ireland-us&amp;title=Tourism+Ireland+leads+sales+blitz+to+the+United+States&amp;summary=%E2%80%98Best+of+Ireland%E2%80%99+sales+mission+visits+Chicago%2C+Raleigh%2C+Washington+DC+and+Philadelphia&amp;source=\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"mailto:?subject=Tourism Ireland leads sales blitz to the United States&amp;body=From HotelNews.ie: https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hotelnews.ie%2Farticles%2F2026%2Ftourismireland%2Fbest-of-ireland-us \"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>IHF Member Hotels &amp; Guesthouses and tourism industry partners can submit news stories for inclusion by emailing us at <a class=\"o\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hotelnews.ie\/articles\/2026\/tourismireland\/mailto:hotelnews@ihf.ie\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">hotelnews@ihf.ie<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tourism Marketing Tourism Ireland leads sales blitz to the United States \u2018Best of Ireland\u2019 sales mission visits Chicago,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":909235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-909234","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-united-states","9":"tag-us","10":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116443614067112558","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=909234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/909235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=909234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=909234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=909234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}