Italian rugby fans get in the Giro spirit at the recent Six Nations match in Ireland, but Sean Kelly believes Dublin is wasting the race's visit here, a charge now denied by Fáilte Ireland.
Tourism Ireland chiefs have hit back at suggestions made by cycling legend Sean Kellythat there isn’t enough being done to promote the Giro d’Italia which starts in Belfast on May 9th.
Kelly, who spent four years as the world's number one cyclist said last month: “We’ve heard almost nothing about the Giro. There’s so little about it. It’s going to be a long time before we get to host a big stage race again in Ireland. I think it’s a scandal that Tourism Ireland are not doing something.”
But yesterday, speaking in Dublin at an event to highlight a packed promotional programme of events leading up to the three-week race, Tourism Ireland PR manager Sinead Grace challenged Kelly's sentiments.
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She said the bringing of the Giro d’Italia to people’s attention is one of her “biggest” objectives this year and there was a “range of activities being done” to make people aware of it.
“Ourselves, the Northern Ireland tourist board and Failte Ireland are the ones who are responsible for the product development of the Giro here in Ireland,” she said.
“Our remit in Tourism Ireland is to work overseas to get Australians and Americans and whoever else to come in here; and we have a busy programme of promotions underway.
“We’ve had a programme in the overseas market place since it was announced that the Giro is coming here, so to say we’re doing nothing is wrong."
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Grace said the work being done to promote the race's visit to the Republic was being undertaken in stages.
“Initially our priority was to build awareness among cyclists that the Giro was actually happening here," she said.
"Then phase two of the campaign was to promote cycling activity holidays to people who aren’t necessarily mad cyclists but would be interested in coming here to enjoy our landscape and the history of Ireland and so on.
“And there’ll also be another phase after the Giro is gone, to promote Ireland. It’s very important that we maximise the exposure of this.
“The Giro organisers are saying that about 75 million people tune into this and we’re very fortunate that the route that has been chosen north and south of the border is going to come through a very scenic route.
“We have a tremendous opportunity to capitalise on that; and we intend to maximise that from a tourism perspective and we have been doing that as much as possible. It’s one of our biggest goals for the first half of the year.”
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