Kensington, Tourism Ireland and Ancestry Partner on Irish Heritage Journeys

Customized and privately guided luxury operator Kensington has announced a new partnership with Tourism Ireland designed to help travel advisors in North America confidently position and sell Ireland through the lens of ancestry, heritage and cultural connection.

The collaboration will combine advisor education with consumer marketing to build awareness and demand for heritage travel to Ireland. Together with Kensington’s existing partnership with Ancestry, the initiative aims to demonstrate how family history research can become the starting point for a highly personalized journey across the island of Ireland.

Ireland has one of the world’s largest diasporas, with more than 70 million people around the world and 37 million in North America claiming Irish ancestry. For travellers interested in understanding where their families came from, Kensington’s Personal Heritage Journeys offer an opportunity to go beyond names and dates to experience the places connected to their own family stories.

Kensington is seeing growing demand for these experiences, with bookings for its Personal Heritage Journeys in partnership with Ancestry up significantly year over year. The growth reflects increasing interest among travellers in using family history as a starting point for more meaningful and personalized travel.

“For someone with Irish heritage, a trip to Ireland can be much more than a vacation,” said Jacqueline Grossman, VP of Marketing Partnerships, Kensington. “It can be an opportunity to understand where their family came from and experience places that have personal meaning. Together with Tourism Ireland and Ancestry, we can give travel advisors a very different kind of Ireland experience to offer their clients, one that begins with the traveler’s own story.”

From Family Research to Personal Journey

Kensington’s partnership with Ancestry brings together genealogical research from AncestryProGenealogists with Kensington’s travel expertise. Kensington Destination Experts use that research to shape each journey around the client’s family history. Ancestry’s involvement continues in Ireland, where an onsite Ancestry genealogist guide helps travellers visit the sites of their ancestors’ house, farm, church, school, and graveyard, connecting the research to the places they visit. The client may even meet living relatives or other local residents!

Kensington’s enhanced Personal Heritage Journeys were developed by its Destination Experts with input from Ancestry. Together, they connect discoveries made before departure with experiences on the ground. When research identifies an ancestral home, the Ancestry genealogist guide can accompany travellers there and help them understand its place in their family story and the local historical context.

Rather than following a standard sightseeing itinerary, travellers can visit towns, villages and regions connected to their ancestors while exploring the history and culture that provide greater context to their family story. Because each journey is private and flexible, it can be adapted around those discoveries while incorporating the experiences travelers want from a trip to Ireland.

For advisors, the result is a highly personalized experience that combines genealogical research, an onsite Ancestry genealogist guide, Kensington’s destination expertise and private touring in a way that would be difficult to independently assemble for a client.

“Discovering your family history can create a powerful connection to the people and places that came before you,” said Kyle Betit, Travel Program Manager and Senior Genealogist, Ancestry. 

“Ireland’s ancestral heritage has created lasting connections with millions of people around the world,” said Alison Metcalfe, EVP, Head of North America & Australia/NZ for Tourism Ireland. 

“This partnership gives travelers an opportunity to explore those family connections in a very personal way, while helping travel advisors turn an interest in family history into a meaningful reason to visit the island of Ireland.”

Helping Advisors Sell Ireland Through a Different Lens

As part of the partnership, Kensington and Tourism Ireland will provide travel advisors with education and marketing support to build greater understanding of Ireland’s heritage travel opportunities and help them introduce Personal Heritage Journeys to clients.

The collaboration will also include joint consumer marketing with Ancestry and Tourism Ireland to build awareness of Ireland as a destination where travellers can explore not only its history, culture and landscapes, but their own connection to them.