Guinness Storehouse: Ireland's No.1 International Visitor Attraction

Guinness Storehouse celebrates a record breaking year as Ireland's No.1 international visitor attraction receiving 1,087,209 visitors in 2012.

This week, the Guinness Storehouse announced that 2012 was a record breaking year for the number of visitors that it catered to. In 2012, 1,087,209 guests passed through their doors, smashing the previously held record of 1,038,910 in 2008. This represents a 6% increase on 2011 visitor numbers and sees the popular visitor attraction retaining its position as Ireland’s number 1 international visitor attraction.

The Guinness Storehouse is also celebrating its status as one of the largest brand visitor attractions in the world having welcomed visitors from over 25 different countries. However, it wasn't just your ordinary Joe, Franc or Mario who visited the Storehouse in 2012. The attraction was also enjoyed by high profile guests such as the Ellen DeGeneres Show and Conan O’Brien, both of whom recorded segments for their respective US TV shows as well as actor Kellan Lutz (Twilight), musician Example and Fun Loving Criminals.

Paul Carty, Managing Director of Guinness Storehouse commented, “2012 was a very exciting and busy year for us at the ‘Home of Guinness’. Not only did we welcome record-breaking visitors through our doors, including some high profile guests and media, we also unveiled a number of innovative and engaging new experiences as part of our three year €10m investment plan. Over the past number of years, Irish tourism has been hit by the global economic recession. However, it’s heartening to see the numbers increase and with the spotlight on Ireland this year for The Gathering, I believe we can look forward to another successful year in 2013.”

Alex Connolly, Head of Communications with Fáilte Ireland commended the Guinness Storehouse on their performance, adding “along with festivals and events, attractions like the Guinness Storehouse are an integral part of the exciting mixture of things for visitors to see and do in Ireland. Fáilte Ireland is putting its full weight behind its Gathering initiative in 2013 and that should ensure even more visitors this year to places like the Storehouse and to attractions all around the country”.

93% of all visitors to the Guinness Storehouse are from overseas. Visitors from the USA, GB, Rest of Europe, Italy and Germany were the top 5 ranking nationalities in 2012 with USA +12%, Italy +15% and Germany +14% compared to 2011. The busiest month of the year was August with 121,182 visitors, making it the busiest month on record at the Storehouse.

Earlier this year, the first phase of the €10million investment in the popular attraction was unveiled with the opening of the new ‘Global’ 4th Floor, which houses a range of interactive exhibits that tell the story of how Guinness is enjoyed and celebrated around the world. This investment continues through the next two years. In 2013, the Guinness Storehouse will develop a new Guinness Taste Experience, an interactive room telling the Arthur Guinness Story and also invest in a new look Flagship Retail Store.

Bitbuzz Freedom Expands to Further Dublin Locations

Following the recent successful Dublin launch of Bitbuzz Freedom on Grafton St, the service has now been expanded to parts of Henry Street, Temple Bar and the Hibernian Way. Bitbuzz Freedom allows smartphone users to use practical shopping apps and social networking sites to stay in contact with friends and family. This service is complimentary in multiple 20 minute Wi-Fi sessions on Dublin’s busiest shopping streets.

Since launching in June this year Bitbuzz Freedom has already recorded excellent levels of usage on Grafton Street. Shane Deasy, Managing Director, Bitbuzz, said of the expansion to further Dublin locations: “We’re very pleased with the uptake of the service so far and this expansion to other busy outdoor cultural, shopping and socialising destinations throughout the capital is a natural progression. The launch of Bitbuzz Freedom has brought Dublin on a par with many leading cities worldwide, and indeed ahead of others in terms of Wi-Fi deployment.”

“We believe that complimentary Wi-Fi is especially important for international tourists visiting the city. In this respect Henry Street (Dublin 1), Temple Bar (Dublin 2) and the Royal Hibernian Way (Dublin 2) are ideal locations for expansion of the service and we would like to thank the business owners in these locations and on Grafton Street for their continued support. We anticipate further pick-up of this new service in the run-up to Christmas and look forward to expanding Bitbuzz Freedom to other locations throughout the country over the coming months.”

Bitbuzz Freedom is an expansion of the Bitbuzz service and offers the same quality of service the Wi-Fi company currently provides in hotels and coffee shops. Bitbuzz uses multi-band wireless point-to-point backhaul technology to provide a much better performance than traditional "mesh" solutions, enabling users to move around and continue surfing the internet as they walk down the street.

Bitbuzz recently announced that it now has over one million registered users, which was in part attributed to the launch of Bitbuzz Freedom earlier this year.

Sony World Photography Awards 2013 - Last call for entries

----- Press Release -----

All competitions close 4 January 2013 except Professional categories which close on 9 January 2013. Case studies of winning photographers plus entries from the 2013 awards available for publication.

04 December 2012: The World Photography Organisation (WPO) announces the countdown to the close of the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards, one of the world’s leading photographic awards programmes.

There is just one month remaining for professional and amateur photographers from around the world to select and enter their best images of the year. Professional photographers will compete for the coveted title of L'Iris d'Or/Sony World Photography Awards Professional Photographer of the Year 2013, plus a $25,000 (USD) cash prize. Amateur photographers will contend the Open Photographer of the Year 2013 title, plus $5,000 (USD). All category winners across the awards will receive the latest digital imaging equipment from Sony.

Both winning and shortlisted photographers across the many competition categories receive worldwide recognition and exposure as a result of the awards.

British photographers Palmer + Pawel, 2012 category winners, commented: “The awards allow you to reach a much wider audience, they open doors and enable you to take advantage of opportunities that otherwise might not be available. Winning the Professional Sport category not only allowed us to gain more exposure but it also resulted in us being funded to carry out our Sao Paulo Nights project - we shot the first part when we were invited by Sony Brazil to the city to talk about our work.”

Argentinean photographer Irina Werning described the support of the World Photography Organisation to its winners as “invaluable”. Following her win at this year's awards, Werning spent November 2012 on a five-country tour of Latin America, made possible by Sony Latin America and WPO. Alongside an exhibition of her images, Werning gave master classes and had the opportunity to shoot new pictures for her series ‘Back to the Future’ (which won the 2012 Professional Portraiture category) in each of the five countries.

All 2013 winning and finalist photographers will receive an exhibition of their work at Somerset House, one of London's historical landmarks, from April - May 2013. They will also be featured across the WPO website and all winners, as well as a selection of shortlisted photographers, will be published in the annual Sony World Photography Awards hardcover book.

The deadline for entries for the ten Open categories, for amateurs and enthusiasts, is 4 January 2013. The Professional competition, with 15 categories for serious photographers, will close on 9 January 2013. All entries are free via www.worldphoto.org and the shortlist will be revealed on 5 February 2013.

The 2013 Honorary Jury, who will judge the professional competition, is chaired by leading American agency director and newly appointed Magnum Foundation Director, Catherine Chermayeff. The panel comprises photography professionals from the World Photographic Academy including: travel photographer Macduff Everton; Guardian picture editor Fiona Shields; Magnum photographer Chien-Chi Chang and Director of the Moscow House of Photography, Olga Sviblova.

Further details about the Sony World Photography Awards and the World Photography Organisation can be found at www.worldphoto.org

Captain Morgan Kicks Off The Party Season

Captain Morgan Switches On Christmas lights On Board Jeanie Johnston

Last Night, Captain Morgan commandeered and lighted up an Irish ship, the Jeanie Johnston on Dublin’s north quays, to officially kicks off party season in Ireland. The party lights decorating the ship will remain switched on into the weekend to inspire Irish people to go forth and party.

Helping to switch on the Christmas party lights was newly recruited ‘Morganette’ Georgia Salpa, who was wearing a specially commissioned dress made from Christmas party lights for the ceremony.

Captain Morgan said, “I’ve been to all the party capitals of the world but the parties in Ireland are by far the best. Forget Christmas shopping season, I am officially declaring the kick off to Christmas party season in Ireland today and what better place to get off to a legendary start than on the quays of Dublin. Oh, and If you are going to party make sure you do it responsibly, Captain’s orders!”

Georgia Salpa commented, “What an honour to help switch on the Christmas party lights with Captain. I’ve been to other Christmas lights ceremonies but this is definitely the most unique. Lighting up a ship was inspired; always expect the unexpected with Captain!”

After switching on the Christmas lights, Captain Morgan hosted a special Christmas party with some of his loyal shipmates and fans.

Keep up to date with Captain Morgan’s adventures on: www.facebook.com/captainmorganireland.

Electric Ireland: Powering Kindness Week

Electric Ireland Launch Charity Initiative Inspired by Kindness to Donate €100,000 to Charity

This Saturday sees the start of a week long campaign from Electric Ireland with the main objective to to generate good will around Ireland. Simply, for the week, people are being asked to do a kind deed. Like I said, simple.

Each kind deed is then logged and assigned to one of three charities. At the end of the week, Electric Ireland will convert these deeds into donations to the charities totaling €100,000. The three charities are: Special Olympics Ireland, Concern Worldwide and Focus Ireland.

You sign up and register your interest at www.poweringkindness.ie and then every deed that you log is passed onto friends, family or strangers and the kindness is shared. There is no limit to the number of good deeds you can do and the charities will benefit from every act of kindness completed during the week.

At the end of the week, the charity with the greatest number of good deeds done in their name will receive a donation from Electric Ireland for €50,000 with the other two charities receiving donations of €25,000.

Deeds can be as simple as making tea for your friend, giving up your seat to a stranger on the train, calling into a an elderly neighbour for a chat, topping up someone’s parking if you see the clampers patrolling, paying for coffee for the person behind you, offering an umbrella to someone being soaked by the rain, the list is endless.
Poweringkindness.ie will host all the details you need to know during the week, including:

• Some inspiration with a list of suggested good deeds
• Check out what good deeds have been logged to date, there may be some well-known faces taking part
• An update on how each charity is doing and how many deeds are assigned to them
• A deed tracker to show where deeds are travelling to – around Ireland, around the world and the route they are taking

The Electric Ireland Powering Kindness week will culminate in an announcement event that will take place on Friday November 23rd in the city centre. At this, the announcement of the charity with the largest amount of kind deeds done in their name will be made.

The campaign will be hosted primarily through www.poweringkindness.ie but you can get live updates through the Electric Ireland Facebook Page, Twitter Account (@electricireland) and following the #poweringkindness hashtag!