Attracting the Scots-Irish diaspora to Ulster

The bid to attract Americans from a Scots-Irish diaspora to holiday in Northern Ireland will be intensified over the coming months.

 Tourism Ireland, which incorporates the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, plans to target people in the south eastern Appalachian states at major cultural and musical events in the region.

 A promotion will be mounted by Tourism Ireland at the annual Fall Homecoming at the Museum of Appalachia at Norris near Knoxville in East Tennessee on October 6-9 and at the Stone Mountain Highland Games at Atlanta, Georgia on October 15-16.

 George Holmes, cultural director of the Ulster-Scots Agency, and Scots-Irish author Billy Kennedy will assist Tourism Ireland officials with the promotion at various events in the  United States this month.

 Earlier this year, Tourism Ireland confirmed a £2 million budget to attract as potential holiday-makers in Northern Ireland the considerable Scots-Irish population in the United States with historical family links to Ulster.

 During the 18th century more than 200,000 Ulster-Scots Presbyterians left for America and today, of the 40 million Americans who claim Irish extraction, an estimated 56 per cent are of an Ulster-Scots diaspora.

 Promotional mail was sent by Tourism Ireland to 250,000 potential customers identified from the American census returns and marketing data in United States regions where the Scots-Irish are most numerous.

 Tourism Ireland confirms the campaign is the  largest tourist drive in America this year, with advertisements placed in 12 major regional newspapers in the United States.

 Over the summer, many hundreds of Scots-Irish visitors from America holidayed in Northern Ireland, including a group organised by Texan Glen Pratt, who described the mid-July visit as "a resounding success".

 Mr Pratt is planning another "Heritage Tour" of Northern Ireland next summer.