A Dublin company has won a contract to produce a strategic action plan for tourism in the US state of South Carolina.

The company, Tourism Development International, will produce a plan for product, marketing and training development for the tourism sector in the southern US state.

The company has produced plans for other foreign locations, but winning a contract for a developed, first-world location is a breakthrough.

Tourism Development International was established in 1988 by former director general of Bord Fáilte Michael MacNulty. As well as conducting consultancy work for the tourism sector here, it has carried out work in Poland, Russia, China and Nigeria.

Mr MacNulty, who is chairman of Tourism Development International, said he was on the board of a university in South Carolina and had contacts there.

"They felt it was time to go outside and get someone to look at their tourism sector," he said.

The report was commissioned by the state government and the local tourism sector.

The major tourist attractions in South Carolina are its beaches, its golf courses and the city of Charleston.

With the demise of sectors such as cotton, the state is hoping to develop new areas, such as cultural and historical tourism. It also hopes to increase the number of foreign visitors.

Mr MacNulty said a round of golf could be played at one of the 108 golf courses in Myrtle Beach for as little as €45.

"Ireland is becoming a very expensive place for a round of golf," he said.

The company is currently completing its report on Nigeria. "They have nothing in terms of infrastructure but they have wildlife, scenery and culture," Mr MacNulty explained.

One of the ideas put forward is an interpretive centre on the slave trade for Lagos. More than 60 per cent of the Africans taken to the US and the West Indies during the slave era came from Nigeria.