Skye fired up for tourism boost as Game Of Thrones TV scouts check out island

It has been credited with pulling in the crowds wherever its cameras start rolling.

And Skye could be next in line for a tourist boom after scouts for a Game Of Thrones prequel visited the beauty spot.

Programme makers want to use the island for scenes in the multimillionpound The Long Night – set 1000 years before the original fantasy series.

Officials visited Skye several weeks ago to pinpoint areas they want to use for potential action and scenery shots.

Earlier this month, it was announced that work on the spin-off show will begin in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter Film Studios in October.

The same venue was used to shoot many of the indoor scenes for Game Of Thrones over its eight series.

Skye has experienced such a surge in tourist numbers in recent years that hotels are booked months in advance and the island’s infrastructure has struggled to cope with the amount of extra traffic on its roads.

Status as a screen tourism destination would almost definitely result in even greater numbers flocking to the Fairy Pools in beautiful Glen Brittle and the Cuillin mountains.

Game Of Thrones fans have visited Northern Ireland, Croatia, Malta and Iceland in their thousands after many outdoor scenes on the HBO show were filmed there.

A record 2.1million overseas visitors arrived in Northern Ireland in 2016, boosting revenue from this sector by 12 per cent, according to Tourism Ireland.

Belfast Airport also had the highest passenger increase of any destination, with 388,486 more customers in 2016 than the previous year. HBO have given the green light for f ive

prequel series and commissioned a pilot episode. A source said: “This would be a massive development for Skye.

“Game Of Thrones had a huge impact on tourist numbers wherever it was filmed.

“The same will most likely apply to the prequel. Skye is def initely a potential venue for the The Long Night.

“The show is set 1000 years before Game Of Thrones so the makers need new ideas and locations. Skye ticks a lot of boxes for them.”

Filming of the eighth and final series of Game Of Thrones finished earlier this month in Northern Ireland.

Most of the show has been filmed there since 2010. Skye has

become pop- ular with filmmakers in recent years because of its rugged landscape and stunning scenery.

Movies filmed on location include Alien lien sequel Prometheus in 2012, Macbeth with Michael Fassbender in 2015, Roald Dahl’s The BFG in 2016 and blockbusters Transformers: The Last Knight and King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword in 2017.

The prequel series is being created by Game Of Thrones author George RR Martin and Jonathan Ross’s wife Jane Goldman, the writer behind X-Men and the Kingsman movies.

Jenni Steele, film and creative industries manager at VisitScotland, said: “Film tourism in general is booming in Scotland in recent years with Jurassic World: Fal len Kingdom and

Avengers: Inf inity War on the big screen andd OutOtllanderd continuingtiig to t prove its popularity on the smal l screen.

“VisitScotland work closely with Scotland’s f i lm location off ices as productions shot here not only boost the local economy during filming but also provide a shop window for the country’s amazing landscapes and can have long-lasting effects for tourism.”

HBO did not respond to our requests for a comment.