A Canadian couple who brought hundreds of thousands of web users to a video of their honeymoon in Ireland have been given a free holiday back here, along with free flights, as a thank you from tourism chiefs.
Stephen & Shannon Parker came to Ireland in May, and later made a video montage out of some 16 hours of footage they shoot while here. They posted it to Vimeo, called it 'A Fortnight Plus Half' and it quickly went viral - attracting 140K hits.
Tourism Ireland and Air Canada have now joined up to offer them a chance to relive the experience on a 2014 trip, perhaps on their next anniversary?
While here, they traveled 2,653 km visiting Dublin, Belfast, Antrim, Derry, Galway, Clare, Kerry, Cork, Waterford, Tipperary and Wicklow.
Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said they were some of the best images of some of the country's best holiday spots he had seen. He said "We are delighted to invite Stephen and Shannon to Ireland, to express our sincere thanks to them for sharing their Ireland honeymoon video online. Their video is a superb showcase of the island of Ireland from the dramatic beauty of places like the Giant's Causeway and Connemara national Park, to the rick history of our heritage properties like Dunluce Castle and Dunguaire Castle, which also manages to convey the friendliness and the warm welcome people receive when they come here. It's a fantastic compilation of someof the very best things to do on holiday in ireland, which will surely inspire other travellers around the world to come and experience the destination for themselves'.
Stephen and Shannon both have Irish links, and they will be given some help in tracing their roots, ahead of the next visit.
Stephen & Shannon Parker after their win
