A lucky couple from the Netherlands flew to Northern Ireland last week, after winning a competition in the inflight magazine of Dutch airline KLM.
Tourism Ireland teamed up with Visit Belfast and KLM to run the competition – to promote the new KLM flight from Amsterdam to Belfast and grow tourist numbers – offering readers on board KLM flights the chance to win a five-day visit to Belfast.
During their time here, the prizewinners – Margot den Dulk and Martijn van den Broek, from Amsterdam – enjoyed a sightseeing tour of Belfast and a visit to Titanic Belfast. They also joined a Game of Thrones tour along the Causeway Coastal Route. One of the highlights of their visit was a special ‘bake off’ cookery class, with chef Stephen Jeffers at the Belfast Cookery School.
Working closely with airlines and airports to build demand for flights is a key priority for Tourism Ireland and the organisation has undertaken a joint promotional campaign with KLM to highlight the new flight to Belfast from Amsterdam. Karen van der Horst, Tourism Ireland’s manager in the Netherlands, said: “We were really pleased at the large volume of entries in our competition to win a short break in Northern Ireland and delighted to partner with KLM and Visit Belfast to highlight the new flight from Amsterdam. As an island, the importance of convenient, direct, non-stop flights cannot be overstated – they are absolutely critical to achieving growth in inbound tourism.
“The new KLM flight is really good news and will undoubtedly help boost leisure and business travel from the Netherlands to Northern Ireland… Tourism Ireland is committed to working with KLM, Belfast City Airport and other tourism partners, through co-operative marketing, to drive demand for this new flight.”
Dutch prizewinners Martijn van den Broek and Margot den Dulk in Belfast Cookery School, where they took part in a ‘bake off” cookery class.