UAE goes green to mark Ireland’s national day

Emirates Business

Several of the world’s most iconic landmarks again went green to celebrate Ireland’s National Day as part of Tourism Ireland’s seventh annual Global Greening initiative. For the first time in the United Arab Emirates, new greenings included Yas Viceroy, Yas Island Abu Dhabi and Global Village in Dubai. They both joined old favourite Burj Al Arab Jumeirah and shone bright in emerald green on Ireland’s most famous national holiday.
Tourism Ireland’s unique global campaign – which sees some of the world’s most famous attractions and sites go green to mark Ireland’s National Day – kicks off the organisation’s €21.5 / £15 million first half promotional drive to grow overseas tourism in 2016.
Known as one of the icons of Abu Dhabi, Yas Viceroy located on Yas Island, is the first and only hotel to be built over a Formula 1® race track (the Yas Marina Circuit). However, while guests usually admire the breath-taking views looking out over the race track or marina, it was the view of the hotel’s green exterior illuminating the night sky that was one to behold. Joining the ‘greening fun’ for the first time is Global Village, the UAE’s leading family entertainment and cultural destination visited by millions of guests each season. Its ‘Gate of The World’ is their largest ever portal with 40 turnstile entrances and 40 ticketing counters. Welcoming guests from around the globe, the gate lit up in green which could be seen from miles away. The world famous Burj Al Arab Jumeirah completed the iconic landmarks in the UAE by going green for its sixth consecutive year.
The Global Greening initiative has truly gone from strength to strength, with a number of new sites signing up to take part in 2016 for the first time. New ‘greenings’ for 2016 will include 7 World Trade Center at Ground Zero in New York and the famous Big Wheel on Place de la Concorde in Paris. The famous Boston Red Sox (baseball team) will wear green jerseys on this occasion, for their spring training game in Florida. Their home ground, Fenway Park in Boston, will also join in the ‘greening’ fun – with the inside of the ballpark, the scoreboards and the ‘Green Monster’ (high left field wall) all set to be illuminated in green.
Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said: “This is the seventh year of Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening initiative and each year I am delighted to see even more well-known attractions and landmark sites wishing to get involved and join our celebrations. The success of our Global Greening initiative is due in no small part to the great work that has been carried out across the world by Irish people down the generations and, in particular, to the great support we’ve received from the Irish embassy network and the Diaspora. The eagerness of cities and countries everywhere to take part underlines the strength of the deep connection that people all over the world feel to Ireland. More than 70 million people around the world claim links to the island of Ireland and Ireland’s National Day is a truly unique opportunity to reconnect them with their heritage.”
“People across the world instantly identify this day with the island of Ireland and that heightened profile allows us to put the Ireland holiday experience in the spotlight – from Sydney to London from Dubai to Rio de Janeiro. Our programme will span Great Britain, Mainland Europe, North America, Australia, as well as emerging tourism markets such as GCC, China, India and Brazil. There will be saturation coverage of the island of Ireland across the airwaves, in newspapers and digital media – and that’s an invaluable boost at this time of year for our overall tourism marketing drive in 2016.”
As well as some of the biggest and most iconic buildings and landmarks in the UAE going green, Tourism Ireland has asked everyone to get into the Irish spirit and to share pictures of themselves wearing green on social media.