Northern Ireland ramps up Game of Thrones tourism push ahead of season five return
by Tom Anstey | 02 Apr 2015
Northern Ireland is looking to ramp up its Game of Thrones tourism push as international visitors flock to the country to see the show’s signature sites.
Season five of the hit HBO series will air this month worldwide, debuting on 12 April and offering Northern Ireland the chance to champion itself as the home of Game of Thrones, which is filmed primarily at Titanic Studios Belfast and 11 sites across Northern Ireland.
Among the sites fans of the series can visit, Northern Ireland includes The Iron Islands (Ballintoy Harbour), The Stormlands (Cushendun Caves), The King’s Road (Dark Hedges), Winterfell (Castle Ward) and Robb Stark’s Camp (Audley’s Field).
Northern Ireland’s tourist board offers a prominent rundown on the filming locations and where to find them on its website and last year ran an 11-week online campaign in Britain, the US, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Scandinavia, which generated one million clicks and is estimated to have reached about 100 million fans worldwide.
Discover Northern Ireland is teaming up with HBO for its 2015 campaign, which aims to bring more than two million tourists to ‘The Real Westeros’ by 2016 from a total of 1.8 million in 2013. It is estimated that in the past year, Game of Thrones has generated £87m (US$128m, €199.6m) at the locations where the scenes were filmed.
Northern Ireland offers tourists a guide to what it calls 'The Real Westeros' Credit: Visit Northern Ireland
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Game of Thrones at the forefront of Northern Ireland tourism push
Northern Ireland is looking to ramp up its Game of Thrones tourism push as international visitors flock to the country to see the show’s signature sites. Season five of the hit HBO series will air this month worldwide, debuting on 12 April and offering Northern Ireland the chance to champion itself as the home of Game of Thrones, which is filmed primarily at Titanic Studios Belfast and 11 sites across
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