Tourism Ireland warmly welcomes the announcement by Scandinavian airline Norwegian of a new service from Helsinki to Dublin, which will commence on 12 April 2013. The service will operate two days a week (Mondays and Fridays) and will certainly help boost tourism business from Finland to the island of Ireland.

Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said: “We are already working with Norwegian to promote their flights from Copenhagen and Oslo to Dublin and we very much look forward to working closely with them to maximise the promotion of this new route from Helsinki. As an island, direct, convenient and competitive access services are critical to achieving growth in inbound tourism. Tourism Ireland is committed to working with Norwegian, Dublin Airport and other tourism interests to drive demand for this new service, and all other services to the island of Ireland, and to help maintain our vital network of routes and services.

“Mainland Europe – including the Nordic region – is an increasingly important market for Irish tourism and in 2013 Tourism Ireland aims to welcome almost 2.5 million European visitors.”