BORD Failte says its policy is to spread the benefits of tourism throughout Ireland. But the images it presented to thousands of potential Dutch tourists focused on the same old places - the Ring of Kerry, west Cork, Donegal, Dublin, Connemara and the Cliffs of Moher.
Hardly anywhere else got a look-in during the 50-minute audiovisual presentation, repeated five times per day at Amsterdam's World Trade Centre. Notable absentees included Louth, Meath, Longford, Westmeath, Leitrim, Roscommon, Laois, Offaly, Limerick, Kildare, Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford and Wicklow.
"They're flogging a dead horse," commented Mr Henry Fingleton, of Kilvahan Horse-Drawn Caravans in Portlaoise. He was among numerous representatives of the Irish tourism industry with small stands at the fair, which also featured live ceili music, traditional airs and pre-Riverdance jigs and reels.
The almost continuous audiovisual presentation, using a bank of six projectors to show some 1,400 slides, started with the most stereotyped image of all - Bunratty Folk Park - before moving on to cruising on the river Shannon. Oddly enough, it didn't mention the link with Lough Erne, via the restored Ballyconnell canal.
Although both parts of Ireland are now being jointly marketed, the North barely featured at all, with just one fleeting panoramic view of Lough Erne. Then we were whisked off to Dublin and buskers on Grafton Street, the Ha'penny Bridge, Molly Malone's busty statue, pubs in Temple Bar and Georgian doorways.
There were lots of photographs of deserted beaches - all of them in the west - as well as misty mountains, sheep grazing on the blanket bog, Friesian cattle standing in lush green fields, fuchsia filled hedgerows, and rhododendrons in full bloom around the Lakes of Killarney.
Backed by an evocative soundtrack of Irish music with a commentary in Dutch, the rapt audience was also shown carefree cyclists on virtually car-free roads snaking around the Ring of Kerry - a particularly deceptive image, given the chronic congestion during the peak tourist season.
Galway city, also massively congested in the summer time, was promoted by the presentation as a place for young people in particular. The fragile limestone landscape of the Burren was featured too, and the Twelve Bens of Connemara - though mercifully it avoided the over-developed coastal strip.
There were pictures of brightly painted buildings in Kinsale, Clonakilty and Skibbereen, Bord Failte-approved B&Bs in bungalows with chintzy-kitsch interiors and all "mod cons", close-ups of the "great Irish breakfast" dripping with fat, and new self-catering holiday homes arranged like miniature housing estates.
There were audible gasps among the audience at some of the breathtaking mountain scenery - the Netherlands, of course, being almost as flat as a pancake - and a few even hummed along to such familiar tunes as When Irish Eyes are Smiling. Not one got up to leave the packed theatre until the presentation was over.
Outside, the sandwich counter did a brisk trade in Irish scones and soda bread, while the barmen were kept busy pulling pints of Murphy's stout. Brochures were snapped up and it seemed a safe bet that we'll be seeing many more Dutch cars on Irish roads this summer.
