Fáilte Ireland Launches New DiscoverIreland.ie Website

Coming on the back of Fáilte Ireland’s major domestic marketing campaign ‘Ireland, make a break for it’, the DiscoverIreland.ie website has been rebuilt and relaunched to deliver on the needs of the Irish home-holidaying public.

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As Fáilte Ireland’s Head of Digital Marketing Claire Cadogan explains, the new DiscoverIreland.ie website has many new features to make planning a staycation an intuitive, informative and fun experience:“The previous site was in existence for almost ten years. So much has changed in that time – even in the last few months - that it was time for a digital transformation.

“The site is part of a significant marketing investment by Fáilte Ireland to drive the recovery of the tourism industry. From a website perspective itself, the design and build is based on industry best practice; we’ve learnt from other global travel giants. We also conducted our own research to help us to better understand how domestic visitors plan and make their holiday decisions.”

The ‘go-to’ source for visitor information 
Fáilte Ireland considered how instinctive and intuitive browsing behavior has become over recent years and the design of the site was adapted accordingly:

“The vision is for Discoverireland.ie to become the trusted ‘go-to’ source of the best things to see and do in Ireland for the domestic visitor. From a functionality point of view, it was key for us that we kept the site simple, beautiful and useful. Search functionality is key on the homepage and throughout the site, so people can access content really quickly, whether planning ahead or already at the destination and spontaneously looking for things to do.”

Consumer insights 
“Over 70% of people book holidays online and over 60% of people use mobile devices to do this. This is why we’ve designed a truly superior experience on mobile devices.

“We also found that when people start to plan a holiday, they start by looking at destinations - closely followed by ‘interests’. With that in mind, we have dedicated destination pages for all counties and all key visitor areas. Within those pages we have quick and easy access to highlights, things to do, what’s on and information on food and drink.”

As with all websites, work is continuous and there will be future releases constantly improving the structure and content already in place. This will be driven by customer usage to adapt to how people are using it; what they click on, and what they search. These subsequent releases will include ‘what’s near me?’ and ‘inspire me’ filters so that people can quickly get information on what’s nearby, tailored to their specific needs. Another important part of that plan will be the involvement of tourism businesses themselves and it’s important that they share information, imagery and video and keep this information up to date. 

“Our new Registered Accommodation listing is much clearer and easier to filter on the site. We are now asking businesses to help us to help them; to promote themselves in the best possible light by reviewing their listings on the site and sharing the best high-resolution images that they have, which will impact on thousands of weekly visitors on our site.

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