Niall Gibbons, Tourism Ireland CEO, and Peter Baumgartner, CEO of Etihad Airways, have launched the Etihad Airways and Tourism Ireland trade incentive during an Abu Dhabi Roadshow event at Sofitel, Abu Dhabi Corniche.

The travel trade incentive, which is part of the Etihad Airways SuperSeller programme, encourages agents to sell flights and holiday packages to Ireland and the two top sellers will be rewarded with return flight tickets to Dublin to experience the destination first hand.

Mr. Gibbons said, "Tourism Ireland estimates that 65,000 visitors travelled to Ireland in 2015, representing an 18 percent growth in visitor numbers from the previous year. A hugely important factor in growing tourism from the UAE has been the availability of direct, convenient and competitive air services to Dublin from Abu Dhabi with Etihad Airways. Etihad has been a great support to us and we are delighted to launch this trade incentive to further promote the island. We look forward to Etihad’s continued cooperation and growth in the coming years."

Mr. Baumgartner said, "We greatly value our relationship with Tourism Ireland. This partnership helps develop our services to the Irish market for the benefit of millions of travellers who are keen to explore everything that Ireland has to offer.

"By working closely with the trade, we will be able to increase awareness of the range of travel services we offer into Ireland from a wide range of destinations on our global network. Ireland has much to offer both business and leisure travellers, and we look forward to welcoming growing passenger numbers into the country."

Source : WAM