Revista Tur smo & Desenvolvimento | n. o 27/28 | 2017 | [ 2149 - 2156 ] e-ISSN 2182-1453 Exploring film tourism potential in Ireland: from Game of Thrones to Star Wars PETER BOLAN * [ps.bolan@ulster.ac.uk] MATTHEW KEARNEY ** [m.kearney@ulster.ac.uk] Abstract | Film as a medium can exert a powerful influence on its audience. A growing body of literature provides evidence that cinematic film and television drama productions can influence people’s travel decisions and entice them to visit particular destinations they have seen on screen. This paper applies the concept of film-induced tourism to Ireland, from the context of early productions of the 1950’s through to a particular focus on more recent high profile examples such as Game of Thrones and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Global online research (netnography) was undertaken with the fan-base of Game of Thrones, further supplemented with analysis of social media content relating to the 2015 Star Wars film and the Irish island location of Skellig Michael. Findings reveal very strong fan bases with respect to each case and a strong interest in the Ireland based locations. Awareness appears to be high and growing in each case which highlights enormous potential for Ireland to grow as a film tourism destination. Keywords | Film tourism, star wars, game of thrones, netnography, social media 1. Introduction A new growth phenomenon in tourism desti- nation branding these days is the increasing trend to associate a destination with popular cinematic film or television drama programmes. This began to gain more prominence and recognition in the modern era following the ‘Lord of the Rings’ tril- ogy (2001-2003) and how New Zealand success- fully branded itself as the home of ‘Middle Earth’ (Beeton, 2005). Arguably however, the concept of film attracting tourists to visit particular places has been happening much longer. Indeed Ireland can lay claim to some of the earliest examples of the * PhD in Film Tourism from Ulster University, Northern Ireland].Director – International Travel and Tourism Management, Ulster University Business School, Coleraine Campus, Northern Ireland ** BSc in Business with Marketing from Ulster University, Northern Ireland]. Lecturer in Marketing, Ulster University Business School, Magee Campus, Northern Ireland.