Tourism Ireland recently announced its sponsorship of the Ireland cricket team for the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, which kicks off on 14 February.
The ICC Cricket World Cup – which takes place in Australia and New Zealand from 14 February until 29 March – will be one of the world’s biggest sporting events of 2015, in terms of its global viewing audience; it will be televised in 220 countries, to a potential 2.5 billion viewers.
Tourism Ireland believes this is a unique opportunity to leverage the popularity of the Ireland cricket team and the Cricket World Cup around the world – to support tourism growth from Australia and New Zealand, as well as other key cricket-loving countries, including England, India and South Africa. The organisation intends to leverage the huge, positive media exposure of the tournament – with its Ireland.com logo prominently displayed on the team’s playing shirt and training kit; the logo will also feature prominently on the website and social media platforms of Cricket Ireland. Video footage of the island of Ireland, including interviews with some of the players describing their favourite place to holiday – will be shared by Tourism Ireland on its website, Ireland.com, and with its Facebook fans and Twitter followers.
This is the third time the Ireland cricket team will compete in the Cricket World Cup; during their first two appearances at the Cricket World Cup, in 2007 and 2011, they achieved two of their greatest successes, beating traditional cricketing giants, Pakistan and England respectively, to great public and media acclaim.
Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said: “We are delighted to be associated with the Ireland cricket team and such a high profile tournament. Our sponsorship of the team in this year’s Cricket World Cup offers us a unique opportunity to highlight the island of Ireland to a huge global audience. It’s wonderful for us to be involved in a sport that has such a wide appeal in many of our important tourism markets – and we look forward to connecting and communicating with a wide audience of cricket fans across the world.”
Warren Deutrom, CEO of Cricket Ireland, said: “We are very proud that Tourism Ireland will be supporting our efforts at the World Cup as our team sponsor. As a standard-bearer for Ireland on the world stage, it is entirely fitting that our World Cup squad will be sponsored by the organisation responsible for promoting our island abroad. Cricket is Ireland’s fastest-growing sport and has enormous prominence in a number of key overseas tourism, education and commercial markets for Ireland. Therefore, we are confident that we can deliver for Ireland plc during one of the world’s great sporting events.”
Sport-related tourism has emerged as a very significant element in world tourism in recent years, with a multi-million euro market and a huge potential for countries who position themselves correctly. High profile sporting events such as the ICC Cricket World Cup provide Tourism Ireland with a unique opportunity to highlight the island of Ireland as a wonderful holiday destination as well as a top location for sporting events.
The Ireland cricket team departs for Australia on 30 January, for a training camp at the Randwick Petersham Cricket Club – where, in addition to playing the Sydney-based outfit, the team will also play warm-up games against Scotland and Bangladesh, before facing the West Indies in the tournament opener in New Zealand, on 16 February.
