~ Tourism Ireland’s latest Game of Thrones® campaign is showcasing Northern Ireland to millions of fans worldwide ~

3 May 2016 – Episode two of the long-awaited sixth season of Game of Thrones® aired last night (Monday, 2 May) and Tourism Ireland unveiled its second ‘Door of Thrones’ – this time in Fiddler’s Green bar and B&B in Portaferry, Co Down.

The door is part of Tourism Ireland’s latest Game of Thrones® campaign, created in partnership with HBO, which is showcasing Northern Ireland to millions of the show’s fans worldwide.

Earlier this year, the Dark Hedges – the Game of Thrones® filming location known to the people of Westeros as the Kingsroad – were battered by Storm Gertrude. Tourism Ireland saved the trees that fell that day, to turn them into a piece of Game of Thrones® history for fans – creating 10 intricately carved doors, each one telling the story of the latest episode in season six.

The doors are being unveiled by Tourism Ireland each week as season six unfolds, in pubs and other venues near Game of Thrones® filming locations across Northern Ireland – so, by the end of this season, we’ll have a brand new Game of Thrones® trail linking the major filming locations around Northern Ireland. The first door, from episode one, is hanging in The Cuan guest inn in Strangford.

Tourism Ireland has also unveiled its second – limited edition – Game of Thrones® stamp, another element of its new campaign.

Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said: “We are delighted to continue our partnership with HBO in 2016, to highlight Northern Ireland – through the exciting events of Game of Thrones® – on the global stage. TV and film are recognised as strong influencers on travellers everywhere and the stellar popularity of Game of Thrones® is a fantastic opportunity for us to promote Northern Ireland to a huge audience of potential visitors. Our latest campaign is a fun and innovative way to bring the destination to the attention of Game of Thrones® fans everywhere – they will see our ads, spiking their curiosity about the landscapes and locations featured in the series and inspiring them to come and explore them for themselves.”

Each week, Tourism Ireland is releasing a mixture of short films and images from the campaign on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube in ten markets – including Great Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Scandinavia. It is building on the success of Tourism Ireland’s previous Game of Thrones® campaigns, which generated about five million clicks, comments and shares and reached about 100 million fans across the world.

Tourism Ireland is also targeting its own social fanbase – posting and tweeting to about 3.4 million Facebook fans and more than 323,000 followers on Twitter globally. The campaign is directing fans to a special section on Tourism Ireland’s international website, Ireland.com, which attracted more than 16.5 million views in 2015.