Millions log on for the craic

MILLIONS of potential holidaymakers all over the US are reading about County Clare and the West of Ireland this month on the travel pages of The Huffington Post news website, which attracts an average of 34 million readers each day.

Richard Bangs, an Emmy award-winning videographer and travel correspondent for The Huffington Post, visited Clare late last year, as a guest of Tourism Ireland. The resulting series of features, The Savage Craic of Western Ireland, has now been posted to The Huffington Post site and includes extensive video footage and photographs of Clare and the West of Ireland.
The series includes interviews with various locals he met during his time here, as well as articles highlighting the huge diversity, culture, unique experiences and world-class cuisine of a holiday in the West of Ireland.
Footage captured by Richard Bangs includes his stay at Dromoland Castle, where he tried out the ‘hawk walk’ with the hotel’s falconer Dave Atkinson; an interview with Katherine Webster at The Cliffs of Moher and a visit to The Aillwee Caves where he met Nuala Mulqueeney.
He describes the stunning scenery of the Burren including Poulnabrone Dolmen, as well as his time in Gus O’Connor’s pub in Doolin and his visit to the Burren Smokehouse, where he met proprietor Peter Curtin.
As well as featuring on the popular news site, The Savage Craic of Western Ireland series will also be distributed across other online platforms in the US this spring, including travel websites.
It has been posted to Tourism Ireland’s Facebook page in the US, which has over 200,000 fans.
Bangs is also undertaking interviews on various US radio programmes, describing for listeners his travels in the West of Ireland.
Joe Byrne, Tourism Ireland’s executive vice-president United States and Canada, said the exposure for the series, produced through The Huffington Post alone with more than 34 million visitors each day, is fantastic.
“It is an excellent way to reach a wide audience of potential holidaymakers right across the US, raising the profile of the West of Ireland and the huge variety of things to see and do, and encouraging more Americans to vacation in 2012.
“The United States is a tremendously important market for tourism to the island of Ireland, second only to Great Britain in terms of visitor numbers. The good news is that Ireland ranks at number seven among the list of inspirational holiday destinations that Americans would like to visit,” he said.