Tourism Ireland Wins Big at the World Routes 2015 Marketing Awards

DURBAN, South Africa, September 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

Tourism Ireland was announced as the overall winner of the World Routes 2015 Marketing Awards which were formally announced last night during the spectacular KZN Networking Evening which took place at People's Park, next to the iconic Moses Mabhida Stadium.

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Speaking just after receiving the highly regarded accolade, Siobhán McManamy, Head of Co-operative Marketing, Tourism Ireland, said "Tourism Ireland is delighted to be overall winner at the World Routes 2015 Marketing Awards. It recognises the great partnerships we have with our airports on the island of Ireland to support their route development efforts with airlines. Tourism Ireland has 22 offices across the world and over 3 million Facebook followers, so our channels to market are second none. We are able to provide our airports with superior market intelligence which allows them to provide the relevant insight to their airline partners to improve air connectivity to Ireland."

She continued "This was a big surprise. After winning in Abu Dhabi in 2012 and then being recognised as Highly Commended in Las Vegas in 2013, we simply did not believe we would be picking up this prestigious award tonight."

"We're delighted to mark the achievements of all of our nominated airports and destinations in our annual World Routes Marketing Awards. Year on year we are impressed by the calibre of the submissions," said Katie Bland, Director, Routes, UBM EMEA continuing: "Tourism Ireland has exhibited excellence in airline marketing through a combination of commercial partnerships with airlines, funding co-operative campaigns with airline partners and inputting into government policy that support enhanced air connectivity."

The awards, which are voted exclusively by airlines, were split into five categories this year comprising of four airport categories, split by size and a destination category for the best destination marketing campaign by a tourism authority.

Tourism Ireland was also named as the winner in the Destination category whilst Dubai Airports was honoured from the Over 50m Passengers category. From the 20-50m Passengers category, Copenhagen Airports took the top spot with Prague Airport winning the 4-20m Passengers category and Halifax Stanfield International Airport honoured in the Under 4m Passengers category.

Created in 1997 to recognise excellence in airport marketing as rewarded by airlines, the annual Routes awards provide the airline community with the chance to have their say as to which airport they think provides the best overall marketing services to them.

In addition to the shortlisted finalists nominated by the airlines, the overall winners from each of the regional Routes events from 2015 automatically gained a place in the final judging. This includes Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Tourism Australia, Brussels Airport, and Dubai Airports, which were respectively announced as overall winners of the Routes Americas, Routes Asia, Routes Europe, and Routes Middle East & Africa heats. A respected panel of judges made up of senior members of the airline network planning community then reviewed the submissions from the nominated airports in order to determine the winners.The panel consisted of the following experts:

Christophe Viatte, CCO, Air Baltic

Olga Guizado, Senior Planning Analyst, COPA Airlines

Andrew    Hodges, Head of Network and Scheduling, easyJet

John Checketts, Director Route Planning, JetBlue

Marco van Vliet, Head of Network and Alliances, Kenya Airways

Eric Nabong, Manager Business Planning, Philippine Airlines

The full list of companies shortlisted under each award category were as follows:

Over 50m Passengers  

• Amsterdam Airport Schiphol
• Dubai Airports - Winner
• Frankfurt Airport
• Singapore Changi Airport - Highly Commended

Between 20-50m Passengers  

• Abu Dhabi Airports - Highly Commended
• Brussels Airport
• Copenhagen Airports A/S - Winner
• Dublin Airport
• Munich Airport
• Vienna Airport

Between 4-20m Passengers  

• Athens International Airport
• Austin-Bergstrom International Airport
• Budapest Airport - Highly Commended
• Cologne Bonn Airport
• Prague Airport - Winner

Under 4m Passengers  

• Cork Airport - Highly Commended
• Halifax Stanfield International Airport - Winner
• Lodz Airport
• Shannon Airport - Highly Commended
• Verona Airport

Destination  

• Hungarian National Tourist Office
• Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority - Highly Commended
• Philippine Department of Tourism
• Tourism Australia
• Tourism Ireland - Winner
• Turismo de Tenerife

Overall Winner  

Tourism Ireland

Notes to Editors  

About Routes  

• Routes organises world-renowned airline and airport networking events through its regional and global Route Development Forums. Each year, there is one global event and one regional event in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Americas and CIS respectively. http://www.routesonline.com 
• Routes was founded in 1995 as part of the Manchester UK‐based ASM Ltd., a consultancy specialising in the field of route development for airports.http://www.asm-global.com. Routes and ASM are part of the UBM EMEA division of UBM plc. 
• UBM EMEA connects people and creates opportunities for companies across five continents to develop new business, meet customers, launch new products, promote their brands and expand their markets.  Through premiere brands such as MD&M, CPhI, IFSEC, TFM&A, Cruise Shipping Miami, the Concrete Show, the Routes portfolio of events, Airport Cities and many others, UBM EMEA exhibitions, conferences, awards programs, publications, websites and training and certification programs are an integral part of the marketing plans of companies across more than 20 industry sectors.

Follow us on twitter: @Routesonline, @TheHUBRoutes, @airlineroute

About UBM plc  

• UBM plc is a global events-led marketing services and communications company.  We help businesses do business, bringing the world's buyers and sellers together at events and online, as well as producing and distributing news and specialist content.  Our 5,500 staff in more than 30 countries are organised into expert teams which serve commercial and professional communities, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively and efficiently. 
• For more information, go to http://www.ubm.com; follow us on Twitter at @UBM_plc to get the latest UBM corporate news; follow @UBM for news from all UBM's businesses; follow @UBM for a flavour of UBM from selected members of UBM's Twitterati.

SOURCE UBM EMEA Routes Ltd