The team at Visit Waterford have delivered their bi-annual update to Visit Waterford members and reported the delivery of Waterford-centric content to an audience of 49 million people across the globe in the first half of 2024.
Waterford’s tourism year took off on a high as the world-renowned Condé Traveller Magazine cited Waterford as a ‘Must See’ in 2024 and shortly afterwards the New York Times with some input from the Visit Waterford team listed the county in their ’52 places to Go in 2024’ list. Visit Waterford’s team quickly disseminated this good news to its key markets and media and capitalised on a ‘lifetime’ opportunity for ‘brand Waterford’.
The coverage and 49 million reach were achieved through an integrated PR and marketing strategy which first began roll out on February 1st 2024 by Visit Waterford. The media outlets that feature a variety of Waterford stories, features, and reports include The Irish Independent, The Irish Times, The Irish Examiner, VIP Magazine, and Image.ie, RTE Guide, The Gloss Magazine, Hot Press and more, which all feature print and online articles. In broadcast, Waterford was promoted to audiences tuned into RTE Radio, 2FM Today FM and Newstalk. Reaching international audiences Waterford was featured and promoted via coverage in The Times UK, iNews.co.uk, The Irish Examiner USA, Irish Star USA, Irish Central, Irish America Magazine, The Irish Post, The Irish Echo and The Guardian along with the Sunday Times UK travel podcast.
In addition, social media content on Visit Waterford delivered stunning imagery, blog content and Waterford videography to an audience of over 2 million in the first half of 2024. Alongside Visit Waterford’s own social media content, several influencers were invited to enjoy some of the attractions and sights in the Deise which resulted in a variety of new content delivered by each blogger to their own audiences.
As a result of the broad coverage and increasing brand awareness, traffic to the Visit Waterford homepage, visitwaterford.com has increased by over 64% in the year to date.
Commenting on the milestone year for Visit Waterford Chairperson Sara Dolan says, “At the beginning of this year Waterford was ideally positioned to capitalise on its trending status and Visit Waterford very much jumped on that opportunity and the result has been a brilliant success.
Strategically created content, news stories and the sharing of updates on the vast variety of things to do and places to go in the city and county have been warmly received by media and target visitor audiences globally.
The ‘Dive into Waterford’ campaign saw the creation of 6 different itineraries for visitors to Waterford – every itinerary focuses on different things to do, places to eat, Waterford’s heritage, exploration and adventure spanning from the east to the west, in tandem, this was launched with an inspirational video and imagery and even a Waterford playlist on Spotify featuring artists from Waterford in a bid to share our vibrant arts and cultural offering too. A further engagement element launched with a ‘Dive Into Waterford’ photo competition – which has proven very popular and is currently running on social media – creating endless user-generated content. It is this type of peer-to-peer content which is proven to be extremely powerful as a motivational diver in the decision-making process in where choosing to travel and explore.
We are continuing to drive the ‘Visit Waterford’ brand and look forward to creating further awareness, interest and travel opportunities as we head towards the shoulder season and as we celebrate and highlight the Samhain offering and Waterford in its first year as a European City of Christmas.”
For further details on Visit Waterford, see www.visitwaterford.com.
