A new Wild Atlantic Way "passport" has been launched by Fáilte Ireland in a joint initiative with An Post to "deepen visitor engagement" with the coastal touring route.

The passport, first proposed last year by Fine Gael TD Jim Daly, is intended to serve as a souvenir in which tourists can record their journey. It will set tourists back €10.

There are some 188 “discovery points” along the Wild Atlantic Way and the idea is that completists will call in to the local post office at each one and have the passport stamped with “a unique motif”.

Fáilte Ireland's Fiona Monaghan, its head of the Wild Atlantic Way, hopes it will encourage visitors to keep coming back to the route. For each 20 stamps in the passport, holders can drop into their nearest Tourist Information Office "to receive a Wild Atlantic Way gift".

Patrick O’Donovan, the Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, says he believes it will encourage those who travel along the route to “slow down, dwell longer and immerse themselves in the local towns and villages” of the west coast.

Daly says he would like to see the passport being used to promote businesses along the Wild Atlantic Way in future. “For example, it could be used by tourists to access discounts and special deals in restaurants or hotels along the route, helping to market these businesses to the visitors.”

The Wild Atlantic Way has been the subject of intense tourism marketing both overseas and in the domestic market since the invention of the concept.