Visit Ireland – win a million dollars!!

Queensland Tourism came up with the genius idea of the Best Job In The World. One lucky applicant will get to spend 6 months as caretaker of the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef. It’s creating a buzz and capturing peoples attention. It helps that the location is so spectacular and evokes images of getting away from it all. The campaign shows that Queensland Tourism are serious about competing for the all important tourist dollar/yen/euro.

The tourism sector in Ireland (like many other countries) is going through a difficult time, but people still need to get away for a break. There is money in the kitty and, like Queensland Tourism, Failte Ireland are out there trying to capture that.

What if $1 million was put aside from Failte Ireland’s marketing budget to run a competition to find the million dollar tourist. People would register their interest in visiting Ireland on a dedicated website and apply for a special passport to visit the 7 wonders of Ireland (as determined by visitor numbers last year or some other competition maybe). They could download and print out the passport and when they make a trip to Ireland, they have the passport stamped when they visit one of the 7 wonders. Each stamp gets 1 entry into the lottery to win a million dollars.

Something like that would surely grab eyeballs and put Ireland on the radar of those planning a trip. The publicity generated would be worth more than the prize and get coverage in places where the marketing budget doesn’t reach currently.

Just an idea, throwing it out there so it’s out of my head.

Image owned by random letters and adapted for use under the terms of a CC license.