Fáilte Ireland spends €900k on photos, videos and drone footage to showcase tourist attractions

Among the projects last year was a “seasonality photoshoot” across Ireland’s Ancient East, Hidden Heartlands, and the Wild Atlantic Way.

Fáilte Ireland spent nearly €900,000 shooting photos, videos, and drone footage of the country’s tourist attractions and destinations over the past two years.

The expenditure included €49,000 on a diversity and inclusion photo shoot to ensure the tourism promotion agency’s content pool better reflected modern Ireland.

Another €195,000 was spent on imagery, video, and drone recordings from Halloween festivals in 2024, including Púca, to encourage domestic short breaks.

Fáilte Ireland also paid €39,000 for a shoot in the Gaeltacht to attract visitors to Irish-speaking areas.

It said the material was used for its content pool, a free centralised, publicly accessible library designed to support national and international promotion of Ireland.

Fáilte Ireland said on average, there were 120,000 assets downloaded from the site annually for use across the world, with that number “increasing year on year". A total of €485,000 was spent on content in 2024 across six different campaigns, figures released under Freedom of Information show.

Spending in 2025 was slightly lower, at €410,000, and covered three major shoots.

Among the projects last year was a “seasonality photoshoot” across Ireland’s Ancient East, Hidden Heartlands, and the Wild Atlantic Way.

Fáilte Ireland said it focused on attractions and activities that were “best showcased in the spring season” and covered 20 locations in 10 different counties.

A further €166,000 was spent on the capture of new ‘Home of Halloween’ content in 11 counties around the country.

A spending note said: “This content is needed to better represent Ireland’s growing tourism offering and encourage taking a break across different locations… at this time of year.” 

Expenditure on a New Year’s Festival campaign was €44,800, according to the records.

For 2024, €101,000 was spent on Ireland’s Ancient East and the Wild Atlantic Way in autumn, and €57,000 to highlight newly built or refurbished attractions at 14 locations.