Tony Killeen
Question:28 Mr. Killeen asked the Minister for Tourism and Trade his views on the effect the anticipated drop in capacity on transatlantic routes in 1995 will have on tourist numbers. [5923/95]
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - Transatlantic Route Capacity.
Síle de Valera
Question:39 Miss de Valera asked the Minister for Tourism and Trade his views on the effect the anticipated drop in capacity on transatlantic routes in 1995 will have on tourist numbers. [5931/95]
Willie O'Dea
Question:43 Mr. O'Dea asked the Minister for Tourism and Trade his views on the effect the anticipated drop in capacity on transatlantic routes in 1995 will have on tourist numbers. [5932/95]
Tony Killeen
Question:187 Mr. Killeen asked the Minister for Tourism and Trade the measures, if any, which are being taken to ensure that tourist fare seat capacity will be provided to meet national tourism targets and the requirements of the ethnic travel industry from the United States in view of the Aer Lingus decision to increase the quota of business class seating on the transatlantic airbus fleet and the loss of Tower Air charters. [6150/95]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 28, 39, 43 and 187 together.
I am concerned that there should be adequate access capacity on transatlantic routes into Ireland to amply cater for prospective tourists.
The main existing scheduled carriers — Aer Lingus and Delta — provide a good service from three gateways. I am convinced that further services would earn a good return for both carriers and the tourism industry here. There are already indications that there may be some pressure this year on available capacity on direct flights to Ireland from the US and my Department and Bord Fáilte are in contact with Aer Lingus to encourage it to provide for additional demand.
The Government and the commercial sector, as partners, have invested significant levels of marketing spend in the US under the US marketing initiative last year and again under the overseas tourism marketing initiative this year. The aim is to increase US vacation visitors by 45,000 this year on top of the 40,000 extra visitors who arrived last year.
There will always be some US holidaymakers who fly to Ireland through the UK, where gateways other than Boston and New York — which are used by Aer Lingus — are involved. For this reason, I launched last week in New York the British Airways holiday programme for the US. This programme, in conjunction with Bord Fáilte and CIE Tours, will be aimed at holidaymakers from North America who fly from 19 cities served in the US by British Airways or a further 53 cities under the British Airways-USAir code-sharing pact. The target is to realise up to 10,000 extra US visitors to Ireland from this programme alone each year for the next three years, but the potential is there for even greater growth.
The advent of additional carriers on the North Atlantic — especially from new US gateways — would greatly support the ambitious tourism targets we have set. For this reason, I have proposed that access will be an important element of the tourism part of President Clinton's Washington conference on trade and investment in May next. Our counterparts in Northern Ireland have made access a similar priority for the conference. My aim will be to persuade new carriers to serve Ireland.
I will be discussing with my colleague, the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications, what measures we might need to take to attract such new carriers here as well as what more Aer Lingus can do to meet tourism needs.
Will the Minister pursue specifically the provision of extra tourist fare seats during the summer peak season when many business class seats are taken up by tourists on Aer Lingus services? American agents have complained that tourist fare seats are not available on some flights. For the remainder of the year, during the November to March off season period, growth has been non-existent in the past three or four years or, perhaps, longer, and at that time there is substantial capacity. Will the Minister ensure that marketing initiatives are put in place to fill the seats during that part of the year?
Under the OTMI programme we are spending $5 million in direct consumer advertising in the US this year. I will take careful note of the point the Deputy has raised. In respect of the off peak months, a number of initiatives are being taken by the Department to bring about a situation where 75 per cent of our visitors would visit Ireland at that time. This is not something that can be done overnight, but the Deputy's point is valid, and we are concerned about it.
The estimated total capacity for US-Ireland direct flights for 1995 is slightly over 500,000 and the estimate of all US arrivals is 559,000, half of whom will arrive indirectly to Ireland, mostly from London. In that context the British Airways initiative announced last week means that they have distributed 1.5 million brochures marketing Ireland in an intensive and aggressive way to 32,000 travel agents and 750,000 consumers. The estimate of 10,000 may well be conservative and we may well exceed it.
One of the difficulties about the British Airways holiday programme is that most of the back-tracking from London is into Dublin. Will the Minister take initiatives to ensure that people who come on British Airways flights have access to Cork, Shannon, Knock and the regional airports to ensure better regional distribution of tourism?
That is a matter I will take up in the context of the discussions I will be having regarding access in general to this country both at the Washington conference on trade and investment and in my contacts with the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and the Minister for Transport and Communications.