And, making a welcome return this year, for the first time since 2014, is the Sydney Opera House.
Tourism Ireland has announced details of some of the famous attractions and sites around the world which will go green to mark St Patrick’s Day this year, continuing the organisation’s first-half promotional drive to grow overseas tourism in 2018. The annual initiative, which sees a host of major landmarks around the world turn green for St Patrick’s Day, has grown from strength to strength, with lots of exciting new landmarks signing up to take part this year.
Other new sites and buildings for 2018 include: the Wawa Goose monument in Ontario and the Cochrane Polar Bear Habitat (also in Ontario), the National Football Museum in Manchester, the Palais de l’Europe (the seat of the Council of Europe) in Strasbourg, Beaugrenelle shopping centre in Paris, the beautiful Kunsthistorisches Museum and the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna, the Konigsbau building in Stuttgart, the Yokohama Marine Tower in Japan, Pen Monument in Hanoi, the Sammy Ofer Stadium in Haifa, as well as Vabaduse Valjak (Freedom Square) in Tallinn.
These new sites will join some ‘old favourites’ which have gone green in previous years – including the Colosseum in Rome, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Sacre-coeur Basilica and the Sleeping Beauty castle at Disneyland® in Paris, the Sky Tower in Auckland, Niagara Falls and the London Eye. And, Chicago will be going all out to celebrate St Patrick and Ireland once again this year, with numerous buildings and sites across the city set to light up green – including Navy Pier, the John Hancock Center, the Wrigley Building, the Civic Opera House and Soldier Field (home to the famous Chicago Bears team).
Tourism Ireland’s unique global campaign – now in its ninth year – continues the organisation’s first-half promotional drive to build on the success of 2017 and continue to grow overseas tourism to the island of Ireland in 2018.
Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said: “This is the ninth year of Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening initiative and each year I am delighted to see even more well-known attractions and landmark sites wishing to get involved and join our St Patrick’s celebrations. The eagerness of cities and countries everywhere to take part underlines the strength of the deep connection that people all over the world feel to Ireland. More than 70 million people around the world claim links to the island of Ireland and St Patrick’s Day is a truly unique opportunity to reconnect them with their heritage.
“People across the world instantly identify St Patrick’s Day with the island of Ireland and that heightened profile allows us to put the Ireland holiday experience in the spotlight – from Sydney to Seattle and from Rome to Rio de Janeiro. Our St Patrick’s programme this year will span Great Britain, Mainland Europe, North America, Australia, as well as emerging tourism markets such as China and India. There will be saturation coverage of the island of Ireland across the airwaves, in newspapers and digital media – and that’s an invaluable boost at this time of year for our overall tourism marketing drive for 2018.”
