Originally Posted by mart901
Given the mass of immigration to the US and all the other cultural links I think it would be better to have flights from a better variety of airports. If I was in the US and wanted to get say to Mayo or Sligo, SNN would be lousy. The same mentality exists in the UK, we have LHR what more could anyone north of the M25 want! Also I don't think mega frequency is what tourists want, convenience means a lot, being stuck in Dublin traffic for instance is no way to start a holiday.
That's not the case though. The vast majority of American tourists visiting Ireland treat their holiday as a 'once in a lifetime' thing, and as such want to tour as much of the country as possible. So there are very few Americans coming to Ireland with the intention of just visiting 1 or 2 cities/counties. As such convenience of travel isn't a major issue. This compares to say VFR traffic from the UK who would travel home to see family and friends several times a year, so convenience of being able to get the closest airport to home is very important.
Also you mention tourists don't want to start their holiday in Dublin, the opposite is actually the case. 95% of all tourists to the island of Ireland enter the country through Dublin, despite having the option of flying through other airports such as Belfast or Shannon.
Lastly, I think if you talked to the CEO of any of the hundreds of US multinationals based in Ireland, you'll find that frequency of travel is very important to them. And given the ever-growing business links between Ireland and the US, having high-frequency flights to the US is more important now than ever.