Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 12 Jun 2003

Vol. 568 No. 3

Written Answers. - World Tourism Organisation.

Olivia Mitchell

Question:

27 Ms O. Mitchell asked the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism if Ireland will join the World Tourism Organisation, in view of the importance of information, intelligence and research, as outlined in the interim report of the tourism policy review group; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16175/03]

Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism (Mr. O'Donoghue)

The WTO was established in 1975 to replace the International Union of Official Travel Organisations, whose membership comprised the national tourism organisations of more that 80 countries, including Ireland. The WTO expects to become a specialised agency of the UN after a General Assembly vote this autumn. It is currently engaged in a membership drive seeking to attract new members and to persuade those, who have ceased to be members, to re-join.

Ireland has never been a member of the WTO. I note that a number of other EU countries, such as UK, Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Finland and Sweden, are not included in the current list of members. I understand that USA and Australia are also not members.

For most tourism administrations, the most useful aspect of WTO activity has been its role in compiling international tourism statistics. Fáilte Ireland has long co-operated with the WTO in this area and, as a result of supplying statistics to the organisation, receives full access to WTO statistical information.

The question of Irish membership of the WTO has been considered on a number of occasions since 1975. The consistent opinion has been that the potential benefits to Irish tourism were limited and would not justify the costs involved. Both Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland have access to WTO reports and have indicated Irish membership of the WTO would not result in any improvement in information access. Neither do they view funding for membership of the WTO as a priority. Information received from WTO suggests an estimated annual cost of Irish membership in the order of €140,000 to €150,000. It is not clear if additional calls for funding support could arise in the future and what implications the absorption of the WTO into the UN system could have.

Since the WTO was established in 1975, the scale and performance of the Irish tourism industry has changed beyond measure and I doubt that membership of the WTO would have added significantly to that performance. In summary, while there is a cost to WTO membership, there is limited tangible benefits. I do not, therefore, propose to change Irelands long-standing policy of non-membership.