Tourism Ireland within Second Life

I decided to look at Irelands involvement within Second Life to discover more about how it could be affecting us. The city of Dublin (within SL) is perhaps one of the most fascinating creations online, and always is visited by many newbies from around the world. In saying that, like most of Second Life, meeting people is sparse.
The first person I spoke with was Mark Henry, the marketing director of Tourism Ireland who recently set up within Second Life:
Mark: Tourism Ireland has started 6 months of sponsorship of the virtual city of Dublin in SL. This will encourage visitors to the virtual city to come and experience the real thing. It will also allow potential visitors to click direct to Tourism Ireland’s website (www.discoverireland.com) from within SL. Tourism Ireland’s in-world activity began in October and will continue to at least St Patrick’s day.We are committed to using e-marketing to the best possible effect in promoting the island of Ireland as a holiday destination and our involvement in Second Life is about finding new ways to connect to today's web-savvy consumer

Steven: What is your target audience? Are you trying to attract people already in SL, or are you trying to attract non-SL users to join?
Mark: 60% of SL users come from the US, the UK, France and Germany – the major source markets for the Island’s tourism. More than half of SL users are also aged 30 plus. In that respect there is a good overlap between SL users and Tourism Ireland’s target audience for our marketing activities.
Steven: I've read Tourism Ireland plans to spend close to a quarter of its entire marketing budget online in 2008. Is this true and how to you plan to use this money online?
Mark: Yes this is true. The investment will be spent on website development, database development, ezine distribution, online gaming, podcasts, vodcasts and a range of other innovative techniques which are designed to engage potential visitors to think of holidaying here.
Steven: Finally, do you believe Second Life will continue to grow in the future, and will other companies and marketing campaigners follow your innovative idea?
Mark: SL has been growing exponentially in the recent past. It remains to be seen whether this growth curve will continue. However we can be certain that even if SL proves not to be the future of the internet, other virtual worlds will prove to be a success and these represent unique opportunities to promote real world Ireland.
After speaking with Mark, I decided to visit the destination myself….