Ireland's smooth blend

Author: By Kevin Cullen, Globe Staff

Date: SUNDAY, February 9, 1997

Page: M1

Section: Travel

The Irish Constitution, after all, lays claim to the six counties that constitute Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom. And while many people continue to argue, some even fight, and, unfortunately, others die over the political status of the land, the tourist boards on both sides of the border have decided to put history behind them by marketing the island as a single entity.

While, on the surface, this may seem rather inconsequential, given the centuries-old battle over whom the land belongs to, the pragmatism displayed by the formerly competing tourist boards is downright revolutionary and, in its own way, provides an example to the politicians and others who have been unable to devise a formula on how to share an island that has been divided physically since 1922, and separated emotionally far longer.

In some ways, the agreement to market the island as a single entity is an example of the kind of compromise that has been absent on the political front. Bord Failte, the Irish tourist board, already having the lion's share of the trade, allowed a smaller group in, while the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, with a much larger government backing it, was willing to lose some of its autonomy for the good of the team approach.

The Northern Ireland Tourist Board kicked in about $800,000 toward the $50 million marketing plan, which includes a five-year TV and press advertising campaign based on the theme of ``Awaken to a Different World.'' The new campaign is based primarily on research that Bord Failte did that found that many who come to Ireland consider it an ``emotional experience.''

The ads, which began running in US television markets, including Boston, on Jan. 20, will run through mid-April, a period when many Americans plan spring, summer and fall trips to Ireland. Print ads will target likely travelers who read travel-oriented magazines from February through May.

The TV ads are set to the background of a song by the Cranberries, the Irish pop band whose lead singer, Dolores Dolores O'Riordan, has a voice that is both modern and hauntingly ancient. Besides featuring the pubs, golf courses, country homes and rustic countryside that Ireland is known for, the ads show images of Northern Irish locations that have never before been similarly showcased: the Giant's Causeway, the breathtaking view from Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge, Ballintoy Harbor, and Portrush Golf Club, site of the last two senior British Opens.

It is fitting that the Irish tourism industry is leading the way. Tourism is Ireland's biggest generator of wealth and is growing. Since 1988, according to the Irish government, 30 percent of all new jobs created in Ireland are tourist-related. Tourism accounts for more than 100,000 jobs, or about 1 of every 12 jobs in Ireland.

The conflict in Northern Ireland, something the Irish call, in their characteristic penchant for understatement, the Troubles, has severely hampered tourism not just in the six Ulster counties that make up Northern Ireland but also in the three other counties in the ancient province of Ulster that became part of the 26-county Irish Republic that was created in 1922 by the Anglo-Irish Treaty.

The 17-month cease-fire by the Irish Republican Army, which began in August 1994 and ended last February, saw an unprecedented surge in northern tourism. Tourists, meanwhile, continued to flock to the Irish Republic. But rather than bask in complacency, the two tourist boards have plunged into the future.

``The idea is to formulate a strategy for marketing that takes us into the millennium and beyond,'' says Orla Carey, one of Bord Failte's representatives in New York.

Gone are the images of thatch cottages and donkeys and old men in caps whose weathered faces tell stories. Those images can still be had in Ireland, but the new strategy for luring tourists to one of the most beautiful islands on Earth emphasizes the reality of Ireland, north and south, being a modern outpost of western Europe, with all the charm Ireland is known for, and all the conveniences of any modern democracy.

The man heading the marketing campaign, Noel Toolan, said the approach is based on extensive research, asking tourists what they like about Ireland, and what they'd like to see changed. Toolan has a good track record. Years ago, when someone suggested mixing two of Ireland's indigenous but incongruous liquids -- whiskey and cream -- they were slagged off as mad. Toolan was among those, however, who led an incredibly successful marketing campaign for Bailey's Irish Cream, which is now on the shelf of nearly every bar in the United States.

Toolan wants to dispel the myths that Ireland is rural and unsophisticated, that it is a summer-only destination. And as any frequent visitor to Ireland can attest, not only is Ireland gorgeous and appealing even in the dead of winter, even some of the fishermen who walk into O'Flaherty's pub in Dingle read the Irish Times and can wax philosophic about the pros and cons of Boris Yeltsin. Unsophisticated Ireland is not, supporting more newspapers and theater groups than any other Western country per capita.

True to form, the Irish are optimistic about the new approach. Enda Kenny, Ireland's minister for tourism and trade, says the growth rate for tourism in Ireland is about 15 percent, or about seven times that of the European average. He said more than 4.2 million tourists visited Ireland in 1995, including more than a half-million Americans.

``The island of Ireland has everything to gain from promoting itself as a collective entity in brand marketing terms around the world,'' said Kenny.

Unionist politicians, and a good many of the 900,000 northern Protestants they represent, abhor the idea of cross-border institutions, seeing them as the first step down a slippery slope in which Northern Ireland will be gradually ceded over to the Irish Republic, and their national identity as British citizens repressed. They are not assuaged by the Irish government's pledge, enshrined in the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985 and reaffirmed several times since, that Northern Ireland will remain part of the United Kingdom unless a majority living there vote otherwise.

Kenny and other Irish government officials believe that the mutual benefits inherent in the all-island approach will begin to erode some of the fears that cross-border institutions amount to a zero-sum game.

The all-island approach to tourism, Kenny said, ``has the potential to make an enormous contribution to the ongoing search for a lasting peace on the island of Ireland.''

Kenny's British counterpart, Baroness Jean Denton, agrees.

``I believe the benefits to Northern Ireland will be considerable,'' said Denton, a charming aristocrat who once drove race cars, and has been known to confront and chastise northerners who say bigoted things about Catholics. ``We estimate potential additional revenue in the region of $45 million in the next three years alone,'' he added.

Denton said an increase in that spending could create more than 700 jobs.

Statistics show that you have a better chance of dying violently in Boston than you do in Belfast. But statistics are no match for television footage of bombs going off. People in the tourism industry, north and south, are holding their breath, hoping the current backslide in the north can be reversed. Political stability is the key to the island's ability to market itself as a tourist destination.

Finally, people north and south don't have a reason to argue over what's more beautiful on a raw winter's day, or a glorious summer's eve, the Giant's Causeway in Antrim, or the Cliffs of Moher in Clare. Instead, they can take Orla Carey's advice: See both.