Roscommon tourism coming to the Boyle as Moone Boy sparks huge interest

The Roscommon Tourism Board should be giving Chris O’Dowd a big pat on the back after internet searches for Roscommon hotels rose by 185 per cent in the last month compared to the same period last year.

The Sky One series, which is set in Boyle and documents the life of a 12-year old boy with an imaginary friend (played by Boyle native O’Dowd) has earned rave reviews and there’s plenty more of where that came from, with filming on the second series just completed and a third series also in the works.

As well as providing a few laughs for viewers, it’s also exposed the beautiful Boyle to a wider audience, with a Hotels.com survey revealing that internet searches for hotels in Roscommon rose by 185 per cent in the period the first series was on the air compared to the same period last year.

It’s not only foreigners that have fallen for Boyle’s charms as the survey also revealed that the Irish interest in Roscommon has increased by 27 per cent from last year.

Commenting on the huge surge in Roscommon’s popularity, Kate Hopcraft, Hotels.com said: “It’s not uncommon for TV programmes or films to help boost a destination’s popularity and we have seen this happen before with films such as Sex and the City, Mamma Mia and even TV programmes such as The Only Way is Essex and Made in Chelsea.”

“Moone Boy has been really well received in the UK and Ireland so it’s great to see that this seems to be having a knock-on effect for tourism in the county.”

Smart ass cynics might say that a 185 per cent increase only means that there were actually only 185 internet searches for Roscommon this year but we would never say that; we love the show and we think the knock-on tourist boost is great news.

The question now is whether Boyle and Roscommon can cope with the huge demand.