Usually when comment is made on the tourist industry, one gets something like a mutual admiration society. Everybody agrees that everybody else is doing wonderful things for tourism. The general impression is given that everything that possibly could be done to encourage tourists is being done, and as a matter of fact, has been done for a number of years, and that for that reason, there is no doubt that the tourist industry has been firmly established with the assistance of State bodies. Further, the impression is given that therefore there is not very much more that need be done.
Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. I agree with the last speaker when he queries how the figures, not only for tourists but for the amount of money spent by tourists, are compiled. I feel it is out of a spirit of optimism that the people who compile the figures feel that everything is grand. They are doing so well there must have been that amount of money spent and there must have been those numbers of people as tourists over the years. I understand there is some type of card system used as a check at seaports and airports and from the figures thus acquired—whether they are right or wrong—they proceed to compile a set of figures which are then handed out as being the nearest thing to gospel we can get.
Everybody who goes to the trouble of thinking about it will realise that the vast majority of people who come in here annually, during the summer period, at Christmas, or Easter, or any other time, are people who, having left this country, are returning for holidays. There can be no doubt about that. If some people like to regard those people as tourists, they are entitled to do so, but most of us welcome them back as brothers, sisters, uncles and friends coming to enjoy a short holiday with the money they earned abroad. It is very unfair that anybody should try to class that type of person as a tourist. I know these people themselves feel very strongly about it. They feel that when they have dropped into the tourist class, they cease to be Irish people and are just people coming to a strange country for a holiday.
There are a number of firms, organisations and individuals doing a lot for tourism in proportion to what is being spent by the Tourist Board. There is one industry—let us call it an industry because of the employment it gives—to which I shall refer, that is, a holiday camp in my constituency. Up to last year, they had a proportion of beds representing one-sixth of the entire bed accommodation in the whole country. They are increasing their availability of beds this year by, I think, 25 per cent. Those people have been encouraging tourists and attracting many people to this country on holidays and they do not get any money at all from the State or any tourist body for that purpose. They have got a grant for some of the amenities they provide in the camp.
As far as their publicity is concerned, they have a system which could very well be copied by the Tourist Board. They do not try to encourage millionaires to come here. It is notorious that when millionaires or very well-to-do people come here for holidays, they come on what is known as package deals and spend very little of their money, no matter how much they may have, in the locality in which they spend their holidays.
The firm to which I am referring send to England, to the towns and to the factories, and encourage ordinary working-class people to come here, people who will come to spend what they saved as their holiday fund. They are coming here every year in increasing numbers. If other people made the same effort, the number of genuine tourists coming here would increase enormously. I know an individual who has a small amount of accommodation for boys and girls coming in parties of 40, 50 or 60. That man has had inquiries from England and if he could accommodate all the people who sought accommodation, the figures would run very close to 1,000 this year. He cannot do it. The main reason he cannot is that he has been negotiating for the past six or seven years for a grant and so many strings are attached to it that by the time he gets it, if he ever does, he will be a very old man with no further interest in tourism.
I believe that if the Tourist Board were sincere in their efforts to attract genuine tourists, they would endeavour, without long drawn out and protracted negotiations, to assist the small hoteliers, particularly in the country towns and seaside villages and towns, who are so anxious to build up accommodation, first of all, to make a living for themselves and secondly, in doing so, to accommodate tourists who are anxious to come here. My main point in speaking on this Supplementary Estimate is to point out that if those people to whom I have referred can find it possible in their limited way to contact not tens or hundreds but thousands of people anxious to come as tourists, then surely a body such as Bord Fáilte should be able to do very much more.
There are a number of grants available for amenities at seaside resorts and I should like to ask the Minister to explain what system is adopted in the selection of the seaside resorts to which the grants are to be allocated. We all know there are seaside resorts throughout the country—I make particular reference to my own constituency where we have the East Meath coast, one of the safest in the country—in respect of which it is apparently impossible to get amenity grants of any kind. Perhaps there is a key of access to such grants and perhaps the Minister will let us into the secret when he is replying of how some of the large amounts of money being spent in this way could be channelled into areas such as those to which I have referred.
There is a great shortage of the small type of hotels catering for the ordinary type of tourist. The accent seems to be on the bigger, plush hotel, the one that can supply everything for very high charges. We seem to forget that the vast majority of the tourists who come here are working-class people and we would be less than honest if we suggested that those people in their own homes were used to the amenities supplied by those plush hotels. What those people need are clean, comfortable hotels at cheaper rates. I think it is time Bord Fáilte realised that and made available to the smaller hotels throughout the country some assistance to help them to improve their accommodation.
I remember a few years ago a hotelier in an English town succeeded in getting a very large number of people interested in coming across to Dublin to be accommodated in the same type of hotel as he was running —one of the moderate hotels where, perhaps, certain people would not like to dine. It was a very nice little place where comfortable accommodation was provided at a reasonable charge. Bord Fáilte were asked if they would be prepared to assist in the promotion of such hotels and one of the senior officials of the board was asked to meet this gentleman in this hotel. He did not turn up. This man came all the way from England but there was nobody there to meet him and a phone call elicited that the board were not interested.
It is too bad that Bord Fáilte, or any other State-aided body, should have so little regard for the plain people—for the person who is prepared to spend £50 or £100 on his holiday and who wants to get good value for that money. I submit to the Minister that such people should be catered for, because, after all, they form the backbone of our tourist industry.
Throughout the country during the tourist season, and occasionally during the off season, we find certain hoteliers increasing their charges. I know Bord Fáilte do everything they can to remedy that. To be fair to Bord Fáilte, they have made attempts to straighten this out but there are still people in cafés, hotels and souvenir shops who make every effort to extract the last halfpenny possible from the unfortunate people who have to depend on them for service. It was said here recently that people mulcted in this way are not likely to come again after the treatment they get. While saying this, I should like to emphasise that there are very many establishments who go out of their way and bend backwards to be decent to tourists. However, it is the duty of somebody —of the Minister and the people he controls — to make a big effort to remove these blots, to deal with the people who do such a lot of harm to the tourist industry.
In most of the tourist guides one picks up nowadays, one finds all the information required about such things as the all-Ireland final, or an international match at Dalymount Park, but very little about the local events which really are representative of the Irish way of life. I have travelled a bit and when I go into a foreign country, I do not immediately rush to the capital: I am more interested in seeing how the people of the area I intend to visit live, enjoy themselves, and what national sports they participate in. I suggest that much more publicity should be given to events at local level here. There is not a Sunday afternoon when there is not a Gaelic match, soccer game, golf tournament or tennis match in any part of this country, but very little information about these events is given to tourists. That situation should be remedied.
The question of the type of tourist who comes here is a matter which must be fully analysed. If the Minister goes to the trouble of finding out the types of persons who come here and catering for their tastes rather than for the tastes of those he would like to come, he will be doing a good job. In this respect, I should like to refer briefly to the monthly magazine issued by Bord Fáilte. A good improvement has been made in it recently and I should like to compliment those responsible. At one time, they seemed to be under the impression that Ireland consisted of a narrow strip from Killarney, missing the country around it, and coming down at Achill and then up to Donegal.
That attitude has been changed and we now find in this magazine quite good pen pictures of places of interest in all parts of the country. Those responsible for that magazine are doing very well. I hope they will keep it up and see that the tourist literature generally, apart altogether from that magazine, is improved. There should be available to prospective travellers in this country maps showing not only Killarney and the other better known places but some of the lesser known places like Tramore——
