Star Wars Awakens the tourism Force of Skellig!
SKELLIG Michael, the haunting, rocky outcrop off the coast of Kerry that starred in two Star Wars films, has transformed the tourism scene in southwest Ireland, locals say.
Fans of the blockbuster movie franchise have been flocking to the sheer-sided island and other Kerry locations since they featured in the two latest Star Wars movies, The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi.
Publican Gerard Kennedy, who runs the Moorings guesthouse in Portmagee, said the village has received a major boost from the interest generated by Star Wars.
‘It’s been very positive,’ he said, adding that an entirely new industry had been created.
Mr Kennedy was involved in providing and arranging accommodation for the cast and crew when the movie was shot in 2014. He was told rooms were needed for a team who were going to film a puffin documentary on the island.
‘We thought they were the BBC – the BBC are forever doing documentaries on puffins,’ he explained.
He said he knew there was something awry when they came back to him to say they needed rooms for 180 people. It was not until one of the crew handed him a business card with the words ‘Lucas Films’ embossed on it that he knew the hit movie franchise was headed for Co. Kerry.
‘I hadn’t even seen a Star Wars movie – if it was Mrs Brown’s Boys, I would have known it alright,’ Mr Kennedy said.
‘I was telling [Luke Skywalker actor] Mark Hamill this afterwards. The crew were getting a real kick out of it that I hadn’t a clue who they were.’
Hamill ended up pulling pints in his bar.
Vincent Kidd, proprietor of the Royal Hotel on Valentia Island, said it had brought areas such as Valentia, Portmagee, Dingle and Donegal (where some filming also took place) to an ‘audience of billions’ that no marketing campaign could ever hope to achieve. Mr Kidd said he saw an immediate impact.
Earlier this year, the first ever May The Fourth Festival (a reference to Obi Wan Kenobi’s famous phrase, ‘May the Force Be With You’) was held around Kerry.
Fáilte Ireland got behind them to push the festival and plans are already under way for a second.