Tourism Ireland announced details on February 9th of some of the famous attractions and sites around the world that will go green to mark St Patrick’s Day this year, kicking off the organisation’s major first half promotional drive to grow overseas tourism in 2017. The annual initiative, which sees a host of major landmarks around the world turn green for St Patrick’s Day, has grown from strength to strength, with lots of new landmarks signing up to take part this year. The new landmarks include: One World Trade Center, City Hall in London, Heron Tower in London, Plaça de Catalunya and the fountains on Gran Via in Barcelona, Pozzo di San Patrizio (St Patrick’s Well) in Orvieto, the four principal monuments in the town of Cosenza (Calabria), City Hall in Antwerp (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), the Cloth Hall in Ypres, Matsue Castle in Japan, Gwangandaegyo (Diamond Bridge) in South Korea, and even a rhino statue in Nairobi National Park, as well as an Ethiopian Airlines airplane in Addis Ababa. And, the famous red carpet in Cannes will become the ‘green carpet’ on 17 March! The new sites will join some ‘old favourites’ which have gone green in previous years, including the London Eye, Nelson’s Column in London, Selfridges department store in London, the Colosseum in Rome, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Burj al Arab in Dubai, the Roue de Paris, the ‘Welcome’ sign in Las Vegas, Niagara Falls, the Empire State Building in New York, the Sky Tower in New Zealand and the Great Wall of China.

Now in its eighth year, Tourism Ireland’s unique global campaign kicks off the organisation’s first half promotional drive to grow overseas tourism in 2017. International journalists will visit Ireland, taking in the Dublin St Patrick’s Day parade during their time here. And Tourism Ireland will also exploit the profile of St Patrick’s Day with international media, sending images, video footage and news about Ireland to news desks around the world, as well as to its database of about 20,000 influential travel and lifestyle media contacts.