Why Germans love Ireland

Transcript: County Cork

Neil Briscoe: Well, we’re delighted to welcome Nadine Lehmann, who works with Tourism Ireland in its German office. Nadine, welcome to the show. Can we start by asking why do German visitors have such an affinityAnziehung, Verbundenheitaffinity with Ireland?
Nadine Lehmann: Well, German visitors are naturally drawn to Ireland because of its unspoiltunverbaut, unberührtunspoilt nature, rich cultural history and especially the warm hospitalityGastfreundschafthospitality of all the people in Ireland. The people in Ireland are real characters, and the Germans love to engage with sb.sich auf jmdn. einlassen, Kontakte knüpfenengage with them. They love the dramatic coastlines, our green landscape in Ireland. And this resonate with sb.jmdn. ansprechen, berührenresonates deeply with the German travellers, who value authenticity and the sceniclandschaftlichscenic beauty. And Ireland is a relaxed place, so people love to escape from their daily life and do slow travel in Ireland. And it has a strong storytelling tradition, which Germans love as well. They also love the pub culture and the music in Ireland, and they love the local traditions that we have.
Neil Briscoe: And also, we’re looking particularly at Cork City and County in this piece. How important is the German market for Ireland in general, but for Cork particularly?
Nadine Lehmann: Yeah, Germany is one of Ireland’s top overseas markets and represents the vitalwichtigvital segment for the tourism industry. The most important market on mainland Europe and number three in totalinsgesamtin total after the US and GB [Great Britain]. So German visitors are very important to Ireland, and the visitors tend to stay pretty long. Like the average is about nine nights. And this year we hear from our tour operatorReiseveranstaltertour operators that they [are planning] even longer trips this year, like 14 days. So they like to travel around the island. And the Germans love the coastline, as I said, and they love to travel along the Wild Atlantic Way. So Cork is a very important hubDrehkreuzhub. And we have direct access to Cork from Germany, from Frankfurt. So this is a great thing that we have, and we have three times a week a flight from Frankfurt to Cork. So it is a good start for our trip to the Wild Atlantic Way, and also the whole region of Cork resonates with the interests of Germans, and they love the food as well and they love to do natural activities, whiskey experiences, everything that Cork has to offer as well.
Neil Briscoe: Well, that kind of leads into my next question, which is, what kind of holidays are these people coming for? As you say, there’s a great deal of love for the sceneryLandschaftscenery and the landscape, but are people just coming to look at the nice scenery, or are they getting out, they’re getting involved? Are they doing active holidays, I suppose, is the question.
Nadine Lehmann: Yes, so the Germans are very strong in the active holidays and outdoor holidays as well. So, we just launch sth.etw. startenlaunched an activities campaign as well with Tourism Ireland and the German market, because people love to combine activities, culture and relaxation when they come to Ireland. They travel around and they enjoy hiking as well, cycling, coastal walks. They love to engage with the communities as well and do activities, cooking classes and all that, especially along the Wild Atlantic Way. And yeah, the Germans are interested, as I said, in local gastronomy. They love the food, and the food is very special as well. In the Cork region, they love to do whiskey distillery experiences, tastings, and they also tend to go to festivals here and there and engage there with Irish people and their culture as well.
Neil Briscoe: And just finally, Nadine, what kind of people visit Ireland and visit Cork from Germany? Are we talking about families, are we talking about older retired couples or even business visitors who are looking to add on to their working stay with a bit of leisure?
Nadine Lehmann: Everybody, I would say, traditionally. I think couples make a strong portion of the market. Couples of age 45 plus, so they love to enjoy the landscape and the culture. However, we’ve seen growing interest from a lot of younger people, solo travellers and families as well. They go on holidays and what grew in the past two years is [interesting] as well, the multi-generational type of holiday so that families go with grandmother and kids and yeah and, as you say, business also plays a role in Germany. So we also have business travel over to Ireland. So overall, the market is pretty diversevielfältigdiverse, but yeah, with a strong part of couples, I would say, yeah.
Neil Briscoe: Nadine Lehmann, from Tourism Ireland, thank you so much for joining us today.