asked the Minister for Transport and Power if he will indicate the results to date of the Discover Ireland campaign.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Tourism Campaign.
25.
Mr. O'Donnell
The Discover Ireland home holidays campaign is being vigorously promoted by Bord Fáilte and the other tourist interests. A wide range of holiday offers covering hotels, guesthouses, holiday camps, holiday cottages, camping, horse-drawn caravans and cruising are being provided under the campaign. In addition, a number of firms and organisations are contributing to the promotion of home holidays through incentive schemes for their employees or competitions to encourage their customers to spend their holidays in Ireland.
I am informed by Bord Fáilte that the Discover Ireland campaign is already showing signs of success. Hoteliers reported that the level of business from the home market at Easter this year was very good and tourism interests generally are pleased with the level of weekend business obtained during the spring.
There has been a major increase in the number of inquiries for home holidays this year. The Dublin tourist information offices, which service the major sector of the market, received 63,000 inquiries in the period January to April, 1972, as compared with 43,000 inquiries in the same period last year. In addition, more than 9,000 inquiries were received by Dublin Tourism through their mobile home holidays bureau which has been visiting factories and offices. The Discover Ireland holiday exhibition, which was recently held in Dublin, handled over 50,000 inquiries and booked over 29,000 bed-nights. This figure does not include bookings made direct with the operators concerned by people who visited the exhibition.
The overall indications are that the campaign will achieve its objective of attracting a substantial increase in the number of Irish people who will spend holidays in Ireland this year.
Mr. O'Donnell
Could the Minister give any indication of whether the "At Home Holidays" campaign will offset losses in revenue from British tourists?
It will offset it to to a good degree. I cannot put an actual figure on it yet, but obviously from the inquiries which are coming through it will go a long way towards helping to offset the loss in revenue.