Ireland tops China holiday poll

Weeks after being selected as the top destination for 2011 by users of the highly respected Frommer's.com website, Ireland has again been voted as the most desirable place to visit by holidaymakers.

The country was rated as the 'Most Popular Destination of 2010' at a high-profile travel awards ceremony in Shanghai yesterday.

The Special Trip: World Travel Awards is organised by the Oriental Morning Post, a daily newspaper with about 400,000 readers. The award winners are voted by the paper's readers as well as travel specialists from around China.

Such news will be welcomed by the tourism industry which has been badly affected by a sharp decline in visitors to the country. According to an end-of-year review by the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation published a week ago, the number of visitors to Ireland fell to a 12-year low in 2010.

The new award comes after a concerted campaign by Tourism Ireland to boost awareness of the island of Ireland as a major holiday destination in the region.

Accepting the award, Susan Li of Tourism Ireland said she was confident the honour would further enhance the reputation of the country and help to attract more visitors from China.

This is just one of a number of awards to be bestowed on Ireland by Chinese media.

A recent survey carried out by Life Style, a Beijing newspaper with a circulation of about 300,000, rated the country as the "Destination with the Most Potential for 2011."

Separately, Tourism Ireland recently picked up an award for the 'Most Creative Destination' by national newspaper Global Times at the Most Popular Outbound Destinations Awards 2010 in Beijing.

Ireland's economic reputation may be in tatters but it's not just travellers in China who are falling in love with the country.

Users of Frommers.com, the website owned by the popular travel guides publisher Frommer's, recently voted Ireland into first place as the top tourist destination for 2011. Ireland beat Paris to the top spot and was described by internet users as a "very tourist-friendly nation."