The first interstellar tourism campaign has taken off - as Tourism Ireland has created an "out of this world" experience.

It is celebrating the imminent release of 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' with a publicity stunt: the first ever tourism campaign in space.

Perched above the earth in space, a billboard ad is highlighting "Earth's Wild Atlantic Way" with an image of Skellig Michael - otherwise known as Luke Skywalker's hide-out in the film.

Tourism Ireland's billboard was launched into space using a weather balloon, reaching a peak altitude of 33,390 metres, where a photo and short film of the ad were captured.

Tourism Ireland is to share the photo and film with its 20,000 international media contacts and some four million Facebook fans and 451,000 Twitter followers around the world.

It says the aim is to create excitement just before The Last Jedi is released on December 15th.

It will launch the first phase of its new Star Wars campaign on December 18th, targeting fans of the science fiction franchise.

"Our space tourism publicity stunt is a bit of fun, designed to create some excitement as Star Wars fans everywhere get ready for the release of The Last Jedi," Tourism Ireland CEO Niall Gibbons said.

"The fact that another Star Wars film was shot on location along the Wild Atlantic Way is truly a fantastic coup for Irish tourism. It presents Tourism Ireland with a superb opportunity to highlight the Wild Atlantic Way and Ireland in 2018."