Lloret de Mar has committed to opening up the Irish market in 2023 with an action plan that includes different actions with Irish tour operators and the Irish media to coincide with the improvement in air connectivity with Barcelona and, in particular, with Girona Costa Brava airport this season (with flights from Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Shannon and Knock). The destination’s strengths include its proximity, with a flight time of just two hours, good connectivity and the tourist attractions of Lloret de Mar for this family clientele that highly values the sun and the beach, with the complements of gastronomy, nature and culture. As the manager of Lloret Turisme, Elizabeth Keegan, explains, “the action plan that we have developed has focused above all on reaching target audiences such as operators and the media, essential partners in bringing the full potential of the destination to the Irish end customer for this market”.
At the end of January, Lloret Turisme took part for the first time in the Holiday World Show in Dublin, where it also held meetings with various tour operators, and in February it took part in the “Meet the Media” event in Dublin, where it met with Ireland’s leading media and content creators. This autumn, it continued the action plan by participating in a roadshow in the cities of Limerick, Waterford and Cork, where it met with around twenty agencies in each city. The last action in the Irish market in 2023 was the organisation of a presstrip with different media that Lloret Turisme had met with during the “Meet the Media” action, such as the Irish Daily Star, The Herald, Sunday Life Newspaper, Northern Ireland Travel News, and the content creators All about Rosa and Lilla, who were able to get first-hand knowledge of the destination and its attractions through a range of activities such as a visit to the new features of the 2023 Lloret Castle, the Gammarus restaurant and the Sant Pere del Bosc food and wine project, combined with cultural activities and activities to discover the natural environment, such as kayaking and hiking.
2023 was also the first time that the Lloret Convention Bureau presented its specialised offer in meetings and events tourism in Ireland, with its participation in April in a MICE workshop organised in Dublin, where it met with around thirty event organising agencies from all over the country.
From January to September, the Irish market brought 12,755 travellers to Lloret de Mar, generating 76,820 overnight stays, with September being the month with the highest volume for this market, with 3,318 travellers and 19,601 overnight stays. These figures represent an increase of 43.4% in the number of travellers and 34% in the number of overnight stays compared to the same period last year. In 2022, this market closed the year with 10,228 travellers and 64,784 overnight stays, figures that have been amply surpassed in 2023 with the January-September period alone.
