People who live in the Isle of Man are going to be encouraged to see the island through tourists’ eyes.

A weekend to promote the island’s attractions to them is to take place in March.

Tourism bosses at the government’s Visit Isle of Man agency are behind the ’On your Doorstep - One Big Weekend’ event. They are looking for businesses to take part.

The ’On Your Doorstep’ event aims to encourage businesses to offer free or reduced price tickets to give people the chance to visit the attractions over the weekend of March 23 to 24.

Organisers hope that people who take part will spread the message to visiting friends and relatives.

Rob Callister MHK, the poitician in charge of tourism marketing, said: ’This is a superb initiative to kick start the 2019 Isle of Man main tourism season and I would encourage our tourism businesses to get involved and make the most of the marketing and operational benefits the weekend will bring. As an industry it is vital we work together to create an exceptional visitor experience and a key aspect of this is to garner support from our residents who will serve to promote our extraordinary island to visiting friends and relatives.’

Tickets and offers will be uploaded to www.visitisleofman.com in the New Year for residents to view, before applications for the available tickets open in February.

Full details of this will be released in the New Year.

Angela Byrne, the head of Visit Isle of Man at the Department for Enterprise, said: ’The "On Your Doorstep - One Big Weekend" will provide tourism businesses an excellent opportunity to gear up for the busy tourist season and trial online booking if it’s not something already utilised as well as a platform for capturing visitor reviews and quality photography to be used in marketing campaigns.’

All businesses registered on the scheme will be promoted via a central booking platform, allowing for promotional opportunities to not only local residents, but other complementary tourism businesses.

Carl Underwood, who runs both Laser-Mayhem and Quad Bike Mania and is a member of the Visit Isle of Man board, said: ’I would urge all tourism businesses to take full advantage of this weekend and the benefits of trialling the online booking platform, which I have recently done with great success for my own business.

’I’m looking forward to welcoming local residents, new and returning customers, to South Barrule as part of the ’One Big Weekend’ to showcase our expanding offering and give them a taste of our newer experiences.

’It’s a great excuse for families to have a go at activities they may not have considered before or try somewhere new to eat and really make a day of it.’

If you are interested in getting your business involved in the scheme, and offering limited free or reduced price tickets to your attraction, contact Visit Isle of Man at [email protected] or call 686888.