Dan Wallace
Question:29 Mr. D. Wallace asked the Minister for Tourism and Trade the level of specific investment his Department is making to extend tourism into the winter months; and the progress, if any, being made in this regard. [1484/96]
Ceisteanna—Questions. Written Answers. - Winter Tourism.
One of the main priorities of the Operational Programme for Tourism 1994-99, which will involve investment of approximately £652 million in Irish tourism, is the concentration of a significant proportion of tourism growth in the shoulder and off-peak periods, with the specific target that by 1999, 75 per cent of visitors will arrive outside the peak July-August months.
As well as encouraging investment in the development of tourist products suitable for year round business such as, for example, tourist angling, the operational programme envisages that marketing will be a key instrument in securing the required shift of traffic away from the peak period.
The marketing sub-committee of the operational programme envisages a total spend on marketing activities of £125 million over the six years of the programme and priority within the marketing sub-programme is given to supporting marketing programmes aimed at off-peak and shoulder periods.
The promotion of holidays in Ireland in the off-peak is also an integral part of the overseas tourism marketing initiative, a consumer advertising campaign involving expenditure in excess of £12 million in 1995 and 1996, aimed at our four main markets, the US, Britain, Germany and France.
I am satisfied that the winter tourism has benefited from the substantial investment which has taken place to date under the operational programme and the overseas tourism marketing initiative, as well as from the allocation of £1.3 million in Exchequer moneys towards special spring and autumn seasonality marketing campaigns in 1994.
The concentration of tourist traffic in the peak July-August period has fallen from 34 per cent in the mid-80s to 29 per cent in 1994. I look forward to further progress in the coming years in line with the targets for seasonality set out in the operational programme.