Tourism Ireland's New Top Boss Came From Google

16.02.2024 - 21:19 / skift.com / Dawit Habtemariam

Most tourism board CEOs come from the hotel or tourism industry. But Tourism Ireland’s new chief executive, Alice Mansergh, came from Google’s marketing side. 

Mansergh took over in September, and was previously managing director for Google Customer Solutions for the UK and Ireland. She replaced Niall Gibbons, who had been CEO of Tourism Ireland for 14 years.

During her 19 years at Google, Mansergh witnessed the evolution of tech company’s marketing practices. A lot of her time was spent at Google’s Dublin office, the company’s headquarters for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Now, Mansergh is trying to help Ireland grow its overseas visitor revenue by 5.6% per year. She spoke with Skift about why Tourism Ireland won’t be asking countries to light their monuments green for St. Patrick’s Day, what’s making Northern Ireland so attractive now, and how privacy laws have shaped marketing relationships. We edited this interview for length and clarity.

Skift: A lot of destination marketing top bosses come from the hotel or tourism industry, but you came from Google. How did that happen?

Mansergh: A lot of people think, well, are those not two completely separate worlds? But there’s actually a lot more overlap than you might think in the sense that, today, 80% of people will research what they’re going to see online before they book a trip.

During my time in Google, I marketed Google’s own consumer products, things like Google Chrome, Maps, Gmail, et cetera, around Europe. I worked with a lot of travel businesses who were figuring out how to reach consumers at the right time when they’re thinking about holidays, getting inspired, researching, figuring out what they’re going to see and do.

In 2018, a role came up on on the board of Fáilte Ireland, which is the tourism development agency that invests in tourism infrastructure, etc.

The pitch I made to them was, well, you’ve lots of people on board from cars and airports and hotels, and that deep tourism industry knowledge is really important. Now you also need someone to represent how people make the decision about where they’re actually going to go. And that happens online.

So I joined that board. When the role came up at Tourism Ireland, I threw my hat in the ring.

Skift: You worked at Google from the internet’s Wild West days through the enactment of privacy regulations and laws.

Mansergh: One of the most interesting things about the internet since inception was that principle in marketing that really you want to understand what the consumer wants or needs, and then the internet allows you to be there in real-time showing the person who wants and needs what you have to offer, what you’ve got.

Now, the world of privacy has moved on a lot. Third-party