Irish sojourn

Ireland's aggressive digital marketing campaign aimed at attracting Chinese tourists has reaped rewards, with a dramatic rise in the number of visitors from China making their way to the island.

The latest official figures from Tourism Ireland, the marketing agency that publicizes the country overseas, show 90,000 Chinese inbound visits in 2017, up 45 percent from the previous year.

The top-three tourist attractions in the area are The Giant's Causeway, which is a UNESCO site in Northern Ireland, Titanic Belfast, which celebrates the place in Belfast where the ship Titanic was built, and The Guinness Storehouse in Dublin, in the Republic of Ireland.

James Kenny, Tourism Ireland's China manager, says the significant increase in interest in Ireland as a holiday destination can partly be attributed to the agency's focused marketing campaigns, principally on social media.

Last year, the Chinese director and TV host Gao Xiaosong's high-profile visit to the country for his talk show series Xiaoshuo: Ireland was carefully coordinated with Tourism Ireland. The show highlighted his visits to popular destinations, including those connected to the United States TV series Game of Thrones.