Tourism Ireland launches FarmVille-style game
Tourism Ireland has launched a Facebook game as it looks to capitalise on the popularity of social media games such as FarmVille and CityVille.
Ireland Town challenges players to create their own idyllic town in the country with the help of 'tour guide' Sally. By completing tasks such as recommending the game to friends they can win a holiday to Ireland.
The game will sit on Tourism Ireland's Facebook pages in Britain, the US, Canada and countries throughout Europe.
The tourist board said it had created the game to tap into the "huge popularity" of social media games. It claims that "24 percent of all people on the internet in the US and Britain play social games at least once a week".
Mark Henry, Tourism Ireland's central marketing director, said: "It is a unique promotional tool and a first, as no other national tourist board had done this before.
"Tourism Ireland is constantly looking at innovative ways of reaching potential holidaymakers and we are increasingly using social media to do so, growing the online conversation about Ireland around the world."
The game will be promoted through targeted Facebook advertising and PR.