MORE than 84,000 competition entries were received for Limerick City and County Council’s Limerick 50 Days of Summer campaign which has drawn to a close.
The majority of the competition entries were from outside Limerick (54.7%) with Dublin, Cork, Kerry, Clare, Galway, Tipperary and Kildare the most popular counties after Limerick with interest in the prize event.
Entrants from the USA, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Netherlands, Australia, Dubai and Canada were also received.
The lucky winners came from across the country including Donegal, Tipperary, Louth, Mayo, Westmeath, Wexford, Galway, Limerick, Cork, Dublin, and Clare.
To amplify its claim as the ideal staycation destination for a summer holiday in Ireland this year, Limerick City and County Council had created an exciting competition that saw 50 people win a unique Limerick experience on the Wild Atlantic Way over five weeks, with ten in total to be won each week.
The campaign had been designed to encourage people living in other regions of Ireland to staycation in Limerick this summer and set out a compelling menu of 50 reasons to visit the city and county this summer holiday season.
The competition includes prizes that were mapped across the five key pillars of Limerick’s tourism offering, with prizes listed under the categories of Great Outdoors, Food & Pampering, Culture & Creativity, Sports & Adventure, and Family Fun.
The Limerick 50 Days of Summer competition highlighted great staycation ideas, such as family fairy hunts and mountain biking, to music gigs and shopping sprees, as well as overnight stays in some of Limerick’s top luxury hotels.
Laura Ryan, Head of Marketing and Communications, Limerick City and County Council said: “We were overwhelmed with the competition entries and delighted with the fact that we received almost 10,000 opt-ins to our Limerick.ie newsletters to keep people updated on further marketing information about Limerick.”
“This was always going to be an unusual Summer to promote visiting Limerick safely during the pandemic. But from our campaign, we reached a huge amount of people right across Ireland who may not have considered Limerick as a staycation spot and we definitely succeeded in getting out there and letting the nation know just exactly what we have on offer here.
“During the month of July, our numbers visiting Limerick.ie were actually 12% up on the same period last year so it was great to collaborate with our local businesses and for it to be such a success.”
Limerick hotelier, Patricia Roberts, No1 Pery Square said the campaign allowed Limerick hotels, accommodation providers, attractions and visitor experiences to come together and actively promote and participate in the campaign as a vehicle to showcase their services, as well as experiences adjacent and complementary to their own.
“This ‘Limerick 50 Days of Summer’ competition definitely worked well for us and we used it as a marketing opportunity to showcase our own special rates for 50 rooms for 50 nights which went very well for us.
“I definitely felt that the campaign heightened Limerick’s profile and led to extra bed nights across the city and county, so it was good to have that marketing support from Limerick City and County Council and definitely helped put Limerick out there during what is an extremely challenging tourism season.”
The Limerick 50 Days of Summer campaign built on the launch earlier this year of Limerick’s new brand ‘Atlantic Edge, European Embrace’, to compete with other tourism destinations across Ireland in a way that felt fresh and celebratory.
While the competition has since concluded, the council’s summer marketing campaign continues until Sunday 13 September with familiarisation and influencer trips planned, new itineraries for Limerick created by Lonely Planet travel writer Vic O’Sullivan to be featured and an ongoing digital campaign all in the mix.
