Clare in the Australian spotlight

The spectacular scenery of County Clare will feature in a series of online videos on one of Australia’s top travel websites, encouraging thousands of potential Australian holidaymakers to consider Clare, the west and the island of Ireland as their holiday destination for 2010.
The online videos are being produced by Flight Centre, Australasia’s largest retail travel agency group. Australian cameraman Mark Broadbent visited Clare this week to capture footage which will be used to promote the county on the Flight Centre website.
Invited by Tourism Ireland in Sydney, Mark’s video will include the Burren and Poulnabrone Dolmen, the spectacular Cliffs of Moher, as well as footage around Ennis.
Boasting more than 2,000 shops and businesses in 11 countries, Flight Centre is Australasia’s leading travel agency. It is expected that the online videos will be viewed by over 300,000 holidaymakers next year.
Orla Saul, Tourism Ireland’s manager in Australia, said, “We are delighted to work with Flight Centre on this project.
“It is an excellent opportunity to showcase Clare, the West and Ireland as a premier holiday destination to a huge potential audience.
“Australasia is a significant and developing market for tourism to Ireland. Last year, we welcomed 176,000 visitors from Australia and New Zealand. Working with Flight Centre provides us with an excellent opportunity to develop even more business from Australia, as well as from developing markets such as South Africa and Asia,” she added.