Vol. 482 No. 3
290 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands the steps, if any, he has taken on the concern expressed in the mid-term evaluation report on the Operational Programme for Tourism that insufficient attention is being paid to the marketing of culture and heritage products. [17709/97]
I would not fully accept the criticism in the report of the mid-term evaluation of the Operational Programme for Tourism, given the efforts made by the National Cultural Institutions and the Heritage Service of my Department in marketing their facilities. However, I do agree that, as part of the wider objective to attract foreign tourists to Ireland, more needs to be done internationally to market our facilities. Accordingly my Department intends to allocate funding in 1998 and 1999 to a new initiative, presently in the course of being finalised, for the marketing internationally of cultural and heritage attractions in the context of the Operational Programme for Tourism 1994-9.
