Also on 18 June Tourism Ireland reported the completion of a week-long press trip that brought seven high-profile German journalists to Ireland’s south-west to sample ‘nature and wellness’ experiences. The visiting writers, whose outlets reach a combined 4.6 million readers, kayaked Kinsale Harbour, tried seaweed baths in Sneem and practised forest-bathing in Glengarriff before touring iconic heritage sites such as the Rock of Cashel. Wellness travel is one of the fastest-growing segments in continental Europe, worth an estimated €156 billion a year. For Ireland the niche dovetails neatly with post-pandemic demand for outdoor, sustainable, small-group itineraries—segments that bring high-spend visitors outside peak urban hotspots. The journalists’ content will run in titles ranging from lifestyle magazine Emotion to national daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, timed to influence autumn booking cycles. From a mobility perspective the campaign supports regional air routes that many multinational companies rely on for staff rotations: Lufthansa’s Munich–Cork service and Eurowings’ Düsseldorf–Dublin flights both depend in part on leisure load factors. The trip also showcased small wellness operators that often host corporate off-sites and executive retreats, feeding into the meetings market highlighted by the Frankfurt-Cologne showcase. Tourism Ireland’s continental marketing director Nadine Lehmann said the agency will replicate the wellness-focussed itinerary for Scandinavian and Benelux media later this year, aiming to position Ireland as “Europe’s green lung” for stressed city-dwellers. The initiative aligns with Fáilte Ireland’s push to add 20 % more ‘sustainability-accredited’ tourism businesses by 2028.
Source: Tourism Ireland press release
