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Ireland is now the fifth most popular tourism destination in the world on Facebook. Tourism Ireland, the organization responsible for promoting the island of Ireland overseas, announced today that its fan-base on Facebook now numbers a quarter of a million people around the globe - and counting.

COUNTRY FACEBOOK FANS
1    Australia    1,400,000
2    New Zealand     310,000
3    Spain     280,000
4    Croatia     260,000
5    Ireland     250,000

Tourism Ireland is actively using social media to inspire potential holidaymakers to come and visit the island of Ireland. It now has fans in 14 countries around the globe - including Great Britain, the US, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, India, Japan, New Zealand and the Gulf Countries.

 Mark Henry, Tourism Ireland's Central Marketing Director, said: "Whenever we ask people what most influences their choice of holiday destination, word of mouth is always the number one factor. Social media now allows word of mouth about a holiday destination to reach a truly global audience. For that reason, Tourism Ireland aims to get people talking about their positive experiences of our island and the many great things to see and do here."

"Having a fan-base of this size allows Tourism Ireland to communicate over 3.5 million messages about the island of Ireland each month to prospective visitors," Mark Henry continued. "When you consider that each of our fans has in turn an average of 130 friends, we can potentially engage with 32.5 million people worldwide today."

Click here visit our special St. Patrick’s Day section

SEE PHOTOS - Castles of Ireland

SEE PHOTOS - IrishCentral's favorite spots in Dublin

SEE PHOTOS - The ten greatest places to visit in Ireland