"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" official trailer captures the voice of Luke Skywalker telling Rey to "breathe" and "just breathe." Luke might as well be talking about the breathtaking scenery in Ireland where the film shot its seventh and eighth installments.
Ireland's Skellig Michael is the remote rock island where Luke Skywalker built a hideaway and a Jedi temple. The jugged monolith made its first appearance on "Star Wars" in "Star Wars - Episode VII: The Force Awakens" released in December 2015. As the trailer showed, viewers will be getting more than just a glimpse of the Skellig Michael in the upcoming "Star Wars" sequel slated Dec. 15.
As evidenced by the ruins of medieval monasteries, Skellig Michael used to be home to Christian monks in the 6th to 12th centuries. It's a designated Unesco World Heritage Site, but the movie franchise "Star Wars" also did its part in drawing more tourists to the island. According to Lonely Planet, Tourism Island CEO Niall Gibbons said in a statement that they're "absolutely delighted that the Wild Atlantic Way features so heavily in the first peek of the next episode... Tourism Ireland will be taking every opportunity to capitalise on the huge publicity around the film, to whet peoples' appetites to come and visit the Wild Atlantic Way and Ireland."
"Star Wars" pumped a 17 percent increase in Ireland's tourism from 2015. The travelers come from all parts of the world - 24 percent from North America, 17 percent from the UK, 21 percent from Germany and 31 percent combined from Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg. These travelers have more than just "Star Wars" as a reason to visit Ireland.
Popular HBO series "Game of Thrones" also shot around Ireland. Gibbons welcomes the screen tourism on the small screen in "Game of Thrones" and the big screen in "Star Wars." "Star Wars will take us into another dimension, it's an absolutely colossal brand," he told Time.
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