The Gathering ended 2013 with claims of:
- 250-275,000 of overseas visitors to Ireland travelled specifically because of a Gathering, or because of the Gathering
- The growth in visitor numbers, directly attributable to the Gathering, is estimated to be worth approximately €170million in revenue
- The Gathering Ireland succeeded in its broad based aim of engaging the people of Ireland to invite ancestral relatives and friends to attend 5,000 Gatherings right across the country
- In addition to the economic value, The Gathering has delivered a social dividend with a very positive impact on communities
- The Gathering was delivered within its approved budget of €13m from the Department for Transport, Tourism and Sport.
That’s a fantastic achievement!
As part of the initiative both a Twitter account and Facebook page were setup. The Twitter account has nearly 28 thousand followers and a Klout score of 62 and a Twitter verified account. Meanwhile their Facebook page has close to 114 thousand fans:
That’s impressive.
What’s not so impressive is their plans to shutter both presences, as noticed by Damien Mulley earlier today:
The Gathering are shutting down their FB Page with 113k likes (grown with extensive FB advertising) on Friday. pic.twitter.com/AV0KtT4KQj
— Damïeñ Múlley 🏳️⚧️ 🇵🇸 (@damienmulley) January 7, 2014
Maybe they’ll do something with it, but it seems like a bit of a waste .. Over 100 thousand people actively engaging with “brand Ireland” shouldn’t be wasted ..
Such a pity the fans can’t be transferred to one of the existing tourism bodies’ fb pages or to at least re-purpose it
David
Putting some resources into simply pushing out relevant content to the existing user base would be a good idea IMHO eg. events, deals etc., Anyone who has engaged with the page would have some interest in Ireland at some level so why not use that?
M