Irish people are being encouraged by Fáilte Ireland to holiday at home this year and to that end the tourism body has launched a new TV commercial promoting "Ireland’s Ancient East."

Ireland’s Ancient East, a tourism initiative similar to the Wild Atlantic Way, is geared to maximize the history and heritage in east and south of Ireland and bring the region greater international attention. Thus the new initiative, which offers visitors a relaxing journey of discovery of 5,000 years of history in a beautiful landscape, which attracted warring settlers for millennia. And everything the visitors see and experience is brought to life by stories, stories told by the best storytellers in the world – the local people.

Speaking about the new campaign Fáilte Ireland’s Director of Marketing Noel-John McLoughlin said “Last January we set out create a completely unique campaign to launch our new brand Ireland’s Ancient East. The challenge with Ireland’s Ancient East is that people believe they already know all that the region has to offer.

“So how do you make people reconsider somewhere they think they already know? You have to show it to them in a new way. We had a real desire to break with the norms. We needed to go beyond the cliché of just pretty locations and land a big idea that great stories stay with you forever.”

Stretching from Carlingford, County Louth, down through Newgrange and the Boyne Valley in the north east and ranging through the midlands all the way down via Kilkenny’s Medieval mile to Waterford’s Viking Quarter and Cork’s many cultural attractions, the new experience brand is intended to match and complement the Wild Atlantic Way in terms of scale and ambition.