Vol. 563 No. 4
237 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for Finance the meetings the Minister of State at his Department had with the tourism sector, on his recent visit to Korea and Singapore; the number of groups he met; if he used the tourism brief given to him by the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8252/03]
At present there is a very low flow of tourism to Ireland from Korea and there is potential to develop the sector. Korea enjoys a much stronger economy than Japan and after the World Cup in 2002 there has been a substantial increase in travel to Europe. English language learning is a key promotable segment of this mar ket and the tourism agencies have been working with the Irish EFL sector to develop the potential of this segment.
The promotion of Ireland as a destination for Korean travellers and as a European investment gateway were the two main objectives of my visit to South Korea. During all of my meetings the brief supplied by the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism was very beneficial.
During my visit to Seoul, I launched the first ever Korean language tourism website on Ireland – http://www.tourismireland.com/SouthKorea/Index.html. I met with the Deputy Head of the Korea Association of Travel Agents (KATA), Dr. Kyung-Ha-Lee, to discuss the promotion of Ireland as a tourist destination by Korean travel agents. I did an in depth interview with Mr. Clark Roh of The Korean Travel Times to promote Ireland to the travel industry in Korea.
I also met with Cho Yang Ho who is the President of Korean Air and the Honorary Consul General for Ireland in Korea to discuss Korean Air's investment in Ireland through their European booking headquarters based in Dublin.
