Industry & Business

What do the Big Banana in Australia, an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft in Addis Ababa and two rhino statues in Nairobi have in common? They are just some of the more unusual participants in Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening initiative for St Patrick’s Day 2017.

Tourism Ireland’s annual Global Greening initiative has gone from strength to strength – from its beginning back in 2010, when just the Sydney Opera House and the Sky Tower in Auckland went green, to this year, which looks set to be the biggest Global Greening to date. More than 240 sites are already signed up to take part (and new sites are coming on board every day). From Rome to Rio and from London to Las Vegas, a host of buildings and sites around the world will be turning a shade of green over the coming days.

This year’s ‘Greenings’ include some quirky places and things, including:

• Three of Australia’s famous ‘Big Things’ – The Big Banana, The Big Kangaroo and The Big Tasmanian Devil;
• Two rhino statues – called Kyela and Lankeu (mother and baby), in Nairobi National Park, Kenya;
• The Big Nickel – a giant replica of the Canadian 5-cent coin from 1951, standing nine metres tall in the grounds of the Dynamic Earth science museum in Sudbury, Canada;
• The Big Fiddle of the Ceilidh – the world’s largest fiddle, on Cape Breton Island in Canada;
• Futalognkosaurus (dinosaur) – a lifesize cast skeleton of a dinosaur in the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto;
• An Ethiopian Airlines aircraft in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia;
• The Kelpies (horse head statues) in Scotland;
• The Irish saxophone on the Charles de Gaulle bridge in Dinant, Belgium;
• A troupe of ‘greened’ Irish dancers on the London Underground; and
• An Irish-Finnish ice fishing championship in Tampere, Finland.

Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said: “This is the eighth year of Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening initiative and it’s bigger and better than ever this year, with some wonderful (and unusual) new additions like the Ethiopian Airlines aircraft in Addis Ababa, The Kelpies in Scotland and the rhino statues in Nairobi National Park. St Patrick’s Day traditionally marks the real start of the tourism season for us; our aim is to bring a smile to the faces of people around the world and to convey the message that Ireland offers the warmest of welcomes and great fun, as well as wonderful scenery and heritage.”

2017 marks the eighth consecutive year of Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening initiative. New buildings and sites taking part this year include One World Trade Center in New York (the main building of the re-built World Trade Center complex in New York and the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere), the beautiful Petit Palais on the Champs-Élysées in Paris and the Magic Fountain of Montjuïc in Barcelona.