At the beginning of this year, we got information on the Game of Thrones Studio Tour, a planned permanent Game of Thrones exhibit at Linen Mills Studios in Corbet-Banbridge, Northern Ireland, where the show did a lot of filming back in its heyday. The plans are pretty ambitious. We’re talking full-size sets to explore, complete with props, costumes and more. There’ll also be a restaurant that replicates the studio catering experience, whatever that means, and the place will employ around 200 people to handle a projected 600,000 guests a year.
The whole thing was supposed to open this October…and then the coronavirus pandemic happened. Obviously, people aren’t rushing out to go to museums or ballgames or “deeply immersive and sensory experiences” right now, to use the words of Brian Johnston, the ABC Council’s Head of Tourism, Arts and Culture. So things have been pushed back, but Johnson is confident that the Game of Thrones team is still “still very positive about the development of the project” and its prospects as “a major attraction,” according to Armaghi. Tourism NI, the nation’s tourism arm, “really wanted the project to happen” and are “putting great efforts into it.”
But while the team is “heavily invested” in the project, it hasn’t gone through the formal planning processes yet, so it’s “unlikely to be the case” that it opens this fall.
Image: Linen Mill Studios/HBO
And all that about tracks. But if you’re still in the market for a Game of Thrones-themed vacation, Cruise Croatia has delayed a seven-day luxury cruise tour of some of the Game of Thrones filming locations to this August…just bring a lot of masks and gloves.
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