Ireland

There were 3,042,600 internet users in Ireland (representing 65.1% of the population) in June 2011, according to Internet World Stats. (Internet world Stats, August 2011)

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Of Europe's 372 million unique visitors, Ireland accounted for 2.3 million unique visitors during August 2011, according to comScore. Users in Ireland spent an average of 21.0 hours online in the past month, consuming 2,035 pages online. (comScore, October 2011)

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Over three quarters of adults (77%) in Ireland use the internet for personal use; there is near universal use of the internet from home, according to ComReg Consumer ICT Survey Q2 2010 carried out by MillwardBrown. Nearly all of those who subscribe to the internet for personal use, say they have a broadband connection (96%). DSL is the main type of internet connection used

by those who personally subscribe to the internet. Nearly 3 in 10 use a mobile internet connection,

and one in ten each use cable or other wireless connection. (ComReg, August 2010)

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Overall 92% of Irish businesses have internet access in first quarter of 2010, according to SME & Corporate ICT Research H1 2010 report, a review of Findings by MillwardBrown Lansdowne.  There has been a small (but not statistically significant) decrease in access among SMEs this wave of research.

The trend of companies with fewer than 10 employees having lower than average access continues this wave, with 84% of these businesses claiming to have access to the internet. Internet access is also lowest among businesses in the retail (82%) and hotels/restaurant (80%) sectors although from small bases. (ComReg, March 2010)

Home is the primary access point for internet use (95%), while 22% say they access the internet from work, according to ComReg Consumer ICT Survey Q2 2010 carried out by MillwardBrown.

Location of internet use in Ireland:
- Home: 95%
- Work: 22%
- School/college: 11%
- Friends house: 4%
- Internet cafes: 3%
- On the move using portable equipment e.g. mobile smart phone, laptop: 3%
- Public library: 2%
(ComReg, August 2010)

Online travel market

Travel planning

Recently, Tourism Ireland stated that it has become the first national tourism board in the world to launch a social game, tapping into the huge popularity of games like FarmVille and CityVille. The new game, Ireland Town, will be a part of Tourism Ireland's Facebook pages.

Tourism Ireland highlighted that 24% of all people on the internet in the US and Great Britain play social games at least once a week.  Mark Henry, Tourism Ireland's Central Marketing Director believes that it is a unique promotional tool and certainly a different way to research holidays.

In Ireland Town, Facebook fans are invited to create their own idyllic town in Ireland, with the help of 'tour guide' Sally. They can then explore iconic sites and visitor attractions around the island, completing various challenges in order to progress to the next level of the game; these challenges reflect the huge variety of things to see and do on a holiday in Ireland. There are 32 destinations and nine different tasks to be completed during each challenge. Fans can progress faster through the game if they sign up their Facebook friends to also join in. For the fans who make it through all of the tasks, there is the chance to win a 'real world' prize of a holiday to Ireland.

Banking on the viral effect of social games, it is expected that up to 100,000 Facebook fans will sign up to play Ireland Town over the coming weeks.

Tourism Ireland currently has a fanbase of a quarter of a million people around the globe, and each of the fans has in turn an average of 130 friends. Hence, Tourism Ireland believe that they can potentially engage with 32.5 million people worldwide through their new Ireland Town game. (eyefortravel, April 2011)

Travel industry online developments

In partnership with online agency Dublinscope, Travelodge budget hotel chain is beating the recession in Ireland by using YouTube to drive brand recognition and room sales. Travelodge did not originally regard YouTube as a major channel for advertising however the sales figures and correlation to the YouTube campaign quickly changed this perception. What was initially a novel marketing approach has now become a cornerstone of Travelodge's marketing strategy. The YouTube campaign also had a positive impact on organic searches for the hotel chain.

Travelodge started advertising on YouTube because of the huge audience available to advertisers. After several weeks of performance Travelodge was able to measure the success of their advertising campaign and make adjustments to the types of ads used, to achieve a greater return on investment.  Measuring this success was possible using integrated Google products including YouTube, AdWords and Analytics.

In addition, Travelodge and Dublinscope were able to see early in the campaign the vital role played by new technologies available in Google AdWords, like view-through conversion reporting. This feature measures the number of conversions that occur within 30 days after a user saw, but did not click, a display ad on one of the sites on the Google Display Network. Knowing this, allowed Travelodge to determine the best ways and places to advertise, how best to optimize their display ad campaign and how to use their advertising spend most effectively.  (HOTELMARKETING.COM, September 2010)

Broadband Access

Internet and broadband subscriptions increased to 1,655,107 and 1,624,503 respectively in Ireland in the first quarter of 2011, according to the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg)‘s Quarterly Report on the Irish telecommunications market for the period January to March 2011 (Q1).

Both cable and mobile broadband continued to drive total broadband growth. Mobile broadband now represents 36.4% of all broadband subscriptions, second only to Digital Subscriber Lines (44.9% of all broadband subscriptions). However, DSL subscriptions declined for the first time this quarter by 3,866.

Narrowband subscriptions continued to fall (to 40,604) and now represent 2.4% of all internet subscriptions.

The fixed broadband per capita penetration rate reached 23.1%. The total broadband per capita penetration rate (including mobile broadband) was 36.3%.

Consumer adoption of higher (advertised) broadband speeds continues, with 80.4% and 10.7% of all broadband subscriptions now in the 2 - 10Mbps and >10Mbps category compared to 78.9%, and 6.9%, this time last year.

Mobile subscriptions (including mobile broadband) increased to 5,412,551, up from 5,273,313 in the previous quarter. (ComReg, June 2011)