10,140 of Volvo Ocean Race Festival available to the world

Over ten thousand images of the Galway Volvo Ocean Festival have been uploaded onto the pix.ie website, smashing the previous record and making images of the Ireland's biggest ever tourism event available to a worldwide audience.

The image upload was an initiative of the Western Development Commission (WDC) and photo website pix.ie to highlight the Western Region internationally, which according WDC study called "Creative West: The Creative Sector in the Western Region", showed that on top of the existing 11,000 jobs in the creative sector, a further 2,000 jobs can be created in the creative industries in the region.

Commenting on the event, Joanne Grehan, Regional Development Executive of the WDC, said, "We're thrilled with the response from everyone, from kids of five to 85, who have been uploading their photos showing the Western Region and Galway in particular, in such a positive light. Overnight, following huge media support, we managed to have more than 2,000 images uploaded and this morning's total now stands at 10,140 pictures.

"I recommend that anyone who wants to see sheer joy should log on to the www.pix.ie website to see such happy, positive images of people enjoying themselves. Fáilte Ireland figures indicate that over half a million visitors came to Galway for the event, so for the other millions who couldn't make it, they can share some of the craic online. The WDC takes every opportunity to promote the Western Region as a great place to live, work and do business and we have done this again during was the largest gathering of people in the region during the entire year. Our highly successful LookWest.ie campaign has identified a very significant number of highly skilled individuals who would love the opportunity to move west and we want the largest number of people around the world to know it."

The image uploads are part of a WDC sponsored competition which is open to is open to all, where all you have to do is to upload photos taken during the Galway Volvo Ocean Race Festival onto http://pix.ie/go/lookwest. The competition will remain open until next Thursday, the 11th of June, to allow time for everyone to upload their photos and be in with a chance of winning prizes that include top of the range digital cameras to a total value of €1,500.