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Minister Donohoe unveils Global Greening line-up
Minister Donohoe with Tourism Ireland CEO Niall Gibbons making the announcement today
Tourism Minister Paschal Donohoe today announced that the Colosseum in Rome, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Sacré-Cœur Basilica in Paris, the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro and Nelson’s Column in London will go green this year to celebrate St Patrick’s Day, as part of the organisation’s seventh annual Global Greening initiative.
New ‘greenings’ for 2016 will include 7 World Trade Center at Ground Zero in New York, the famous Big Wheel on Place de la Concorde in Paris, Mole Antonelliana in Turin, the light rail system in Addis Ababa and City Hall in Tel Aviv. Also, the famous Boston Red Sox will wear green jerseys on St Patrick’s Day, for their spring training game in Florida. And their home ground, Fenway Park in Boston, will also join in the ‘greening’ fun – with the inside of the ballpark, the scoreboards and the ‘Green Monster’ (high left field wall) all set to be illuminated in green.
Minister Donohoe said:
The Global Greening initiative is an excellent way to position Ireland in people’s minds and to get them thinking about paying us a visit. People everywhere – even those with no obvious connection to Ireland – demonstrate a strong affinity with St Patrick’s Day, with parades and celebrations taking place in countries right across the world. This is supported by broadcast, print and online media, ensuring widespread publicity for Ireland at minimal cost. In fact, Tourism Ireland estimates that its Global Greening and St Patrick’s promotional programmes generate positive publicity worth in excess of €10 million each March.
International journalists – representing top media outlets from around the globe – will visit Ireland, taking in the Dublin St Patrick’s Day parade during their time here. And Tourism Ireland will also exploit the profile of St Patrick’s Day with international media – sending images, video footage and news about Ireland to news desks around the world, as well as to its database of about 20,000 influential travel and lifestyle media contacts.
Read the full press release here.