Aer Lingus have recently announced new direct flights from Washington DC, San Francisco, New York and Orlando. These are planned as part of the airline’s Summer 2015 schedule. The Washington DC flight in particular is set to run four times a week.
Irish Tourism officials are also hoping to increase the amount of Canadian visitors taking a trip to Ireland with the introduction of direct year-round flights from Toronto in Canada to Dublin Ireland, run by Air Canada Rouge and Aer Lingus, Ireland’s national carrier. In addition to this Air Transat and WestJet are also set to offer seasonal, warm weather flights between Canada and Ireland.
The announcement of these new routes is positive for increasing people planning a vacation in Ireland. With the new off season flights from Toronto to Ireland, tourism officials in Ireland are hoping to increase the level of Canadian visitors to Ireland by up to 47% in the next three years. In 2013, it was estimated that approximately 125,000 visitors from Canada visited Ireland, mainly between the months of May-September. One of the main reasons tourism officials in Ireland are hoping to increase off peak flights times is that there are advantages of smaller tourist levels as well as better accommodation and airfare deals.
Canadians typically take 14 day vacations around Ireland, which can include a self drive tour of Ireland (Southern and Northern Ireland). Tourism Ireland are also promoting a variety of packages to Canadians including shorter 5 day breaks to include destinations within a 2 hour drive.
Up and coming events planned over the next few months which are predicted to be of interest to a wide array of visitors include the three-day Dublin New Year’s Eve festival, the city’s four-day Temple Bar Tradfest of Irish music which is taking place in January, and the week-long St. Patrick’s Festival in March.