Eleven Douzelage towns to take part in Global Greening
Eleven partner towns under the Douzelage Town Twinning organisation, incorporating 13 locations, will take part in Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening 2021 initiative this week. The worldwide event sees a record 670 landmarks in 66 different countries light up in green in celebration of St Patrick’s Day.
Coordinated by Bundoran Tourism Officer Shane Smyth, this is the third year that the group of European towns will participate. He said ‘Each year we have more of the towns coming on board to light up their various landmarks in green which is great to see. They want to celebrate St Patrick’s Day with us and show a unity across our network. I am thrilled to see existing towns come back on board and excited to see the landmarks of the new towns joining us that have embraced the initiative.’
President of Douzelage Annigje Kruytbosch added ‘we are delighted to see so many of our partner towns join in the Irish celebration once again this year. Being members of the European Union is all about unity, friendship and support of each other and the Global Greening 2021 initiative certainly serves that purpose amongst our members. In this time of not being physically able to embrace each other, it also shares the importance of “unity in thought”. I would like to wish our Irish partners in Bundoran a very happy St Patrick’s Day!’
Siobhan McManamy, Tourism Ireland’s Director of Markets, said: “It’s great to have even more sites across Europe lighting up green, as part of Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening initiative for St Patrick’s Day 2021. We welcome the Douzelage partner towns and look forward to even more of them joining in the initiative in years to come.”
Landmarks such as Niagara Falls, the Las Vegas “Welcome” sign, the London Eye, the Sydney Opera House will be joined by Douzelage landmarks – Pfingstreiter in Bad Közting (Germany), the Ståltheten in Oxelösund (Sweden), the Stadtturm in Judenburg and Gutman’s Cave in Sigulda (Latvia) and more this week.
The Douzelage European Town Twinning network will benefit from the publicity that Tourism Ireland will generate through sending it to more than 20,000 international media contacts. The equivalent advertising value of the worldwide campaign is estimated as at least €10 million.