The number of people visiting Ireland has increased significantly in the first five months of 2018 (January-May 2018 ) by 7.6% an additional 273,00 visitors on the same period in 2017. The number of visitors from Germany has increased by 25.6% and Italy by 16%, a by product of the increased profile of Ireland during the Brexit Negotiations.
This presents an opportunity for the tourism industry on the island. Investing in your business’ digital profile is the perfect place to maximise your return on investment. Being at the vanguard of a tourist’s research journey will allow you to take full advantage of their custom. Digital has become symbiotic with everyday life and researching a holiday is mostly done online with 48,000 Irish hotel related searches in Germany and 12,000 in Italy per month.
Digital tools let a local business go up against the big tourist chains, and win. Investing in a well targeted PPC campaign allows a local business to have customised ads seen by potential customers that are looking for accommodation in your area. Through investing in the services of a professional digital marketing agency, you can insure that the quality criteria of Search Engines are met, and your adverts have the best possible chance of being seen. Adopting this strategy can have an immediate impact and can boost sales at popular times of the year, such as the summer months, or St Patrick’s Day.
If you want to invest in a long-term strategy you may consider a tailored SEO campaign. Search Engine Optimisation is the process of tailoring your website to rank on the first page of a Search Engine, such as Google or Bing for a given search term. For instance, if you are a hotel owner based in Dublin you could optimise around the search term ‘Hotels in Dublin’. Meaning that whenever someone searches that term your website is eligible to appear on the first page, and increase the chance of converting their interest into their custom, in result driving revenue upwards. The impact of a SEO campaign is not immediate, and you must have confidence in the long-term gains of the campaign, if you have the resources this is the most effective way to have your business seen by as many potential customers as possible.
To make the most of the digital space, ensure that your website is fit for use, you should see your website as a digital shop front. If it is not fit for purpose, then you may not see an increase in custom even if you drive traffic to your website using the techniques discussed in this article. Ensuring that your website is intuitive for the user and it is a simple process to book a service or buy a room you are sure to see an increase in revenue.
The growth of Irish Tourism is evident, given the current political climate there is huge potential for increased and sustained growth from Europe. As a business owner it is important to be aware of this trend and be at the forefront of making the most of this. Investing in the digital economy, is a fantastic cost-efficient way of doing this.
