Dara Calleary
Question:7 Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport the action he is taking to alleviate the downward trend in tourism figures; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6151/11]
View answerThursday, 31 March 2011
Questions (7, 8, 9, 10)
Billy Kelleher
Question:11 Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport if there is a tourism strategy in place to capitalise on the forthcoming trip of US President Barack Obama and Queen Elizabeth II of Britain to Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6149/11]
View answer
Charlie McConalogue
Question:33 Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport his strategy to boost tourist numbers to Ireland; his plans to attract more visitors from the UK and if he will be working with his colleagues in the Northern Ireland Executive to agree a joint strategy. [6145/11]
View answerOral answers (14 contributions)
I propose to answer Questions Nos. 7, 11 and 33 together.
The new Government fully recognises the significant role the tourism sector can play in Ireland's economic recovery. After a decline in overseas visitor numbers in each of the past three years, we are determined that, in working with the tourism agencies and the industry, 2011 will mark a turning point for the sector and that we see a return to growth in overseas visitor numbers and associated revenue. My colleague, Deputy Leo Varadkar in his capacity as Minister with designated responsibility for tourism, will take matters forward in the period ahead.
Tourism's importance was also reflected in the Good Friday Agreement, which identified tourism as an area for North-South co-operation on which the North-South Ministerial Council meets in sectoral format, with representation from the Northern Ireland Executive and the Irish Government. The council makes decisions on common policies and approaches in the area of tourism. It also takes decisions on policies and actions to be implemented by Tourism Ireland Ltd.
Tourism Ireland Limited is responsible for marketing the island of Ireland as a holiday destination overseas. It was established under the framework of the Good Friday Agreement and is jointly funded by the Irish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive. The last tourism sectoral meeting took place in February and noted Tourism Ireland's business plan for 2011, as well as its corporate plan for 2011-13, and discussed its marketing plans for the year. In addition, officials of the Department regularly meet their counterparts in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment in Northern Ireland and officials from Tourism Ireland.
Tourism Ireland has set itself an ambitious target of growing overseas visitor numbers by up to 4% with associated revenue of up to 7.3% this year. To achieve these targets, Tourism Ireland has reviewed its marketing strategy and operations and is focussing on the four key markets that deliver three quarters of overseas visits — Great Britain, the United States, Germany and France.
A €28 million first-half tourism marketing drive is already under way. The campaign, which is the most intensive and targeted ever mounted by the organisation, focuses on value for money and a strong, positive brand image to help Ireland gain stand-out in overseas markets. The campaign kicked-off on St. Patrick's Day with the greening of icons such as the London Eye, the Moulin Rouge in Paris and Table Mountain in South Africa. The St. Patrick's Day programme reached more than 250 million potential visitors around the world, providing a truly invaluable boost for our overseas tourism drive.
Despite very challenging consumer sentiment in recent years, Great Britain remains our most important overseas market, with close to half of our overseas visitors coming from there. Given that it is such a large market and our nearest neighbour, it is critical to achieving overall growth that we see a return to growth in visits from Great Britain. With this in mind, Tourism Ireland has increased its marketing spend in Britain by 30% this year, to ensure a strong promotional presence on TV, radio, online and on social media throughout the year. I got a good overview of this work earlier this month when I attended St. Patrick's Day events in London with Tourism Ireland.
The forthcoming State visits to Ireland by President Obama and by Queen Elizabeth II will be a wonderful opportunity to showcase Ireland to a huge audience of potential holidaymakers in the US and Britain and across the globe. These visits have the potential to deliver a major boost to Irish tourism in 2011 and beyond. A large media contingent will travel to Ireland to cover the visits and the tourism agencies will put in place a comprehensive marketing campaign in Great Britain, the US and other markets to capitalise on this great opportunity.
In other initiatives to boost tourism this year, on the business tourism front, the new Convention Centre Dublin will be highlighted and will further enhance our capacity to attract international conferences and meetings. Significant events such as the Solheim Cup at Killeen Castle, the start of the Tall Ships Race Series in Waterford, Dublin Contemporary, Imagine Ireland, and the Europa Cup final at the Aviva Stadium will also provide significant opportunities to boost our international profile and the tourism agencies will work together to maximise the tourism benefits of these events. Clearly, no single body or organisation can ensure a return to growth in overseas tourism. However, I am confident that, working together, we can ensure that the message this year is that it is the time to visit Ireland can be clearly communicated to the markets, that visitors receive a warm welcome and go home to tell their friends and neighbours to come to Ireland and experience our unique offering.
I thank the Minister for his reply. I congratulate him on his recent appointment. I also congratulate my colleague, Deputy Michael Kitt, on his appointment today as Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I wish both men the best of luck in their respective roles.
The Minister rightly said that the recent CSO figures show a reduction of more than 15% in the number of overseas visitors to this country in 2010 in comparison to 2009. Tourism worldwide has been deeply affected by the global economic difficulties and loss of consumer confidence. Tourism has hugely positive benefits for the economy in general and the local economy in Longford and Westmeath. Many other parts of the country can benefit from an increase in visitor numbers to the island. Last year, the Royal Canal in my constituency was opened up. One can now navigate from the Shannon to the Royal Canal and travel up through my constituency, which is a welcome development. This is the first summer people will have an opportunity to do that.
What strategy has the Government in place to attract more visitors from the UK from where, as the Minister indicated, our highest number of visitors come, although the number of visitors from there has fallen dramatically recently? In addition, what plans are in place to market this country in the United States, Germany and France? This country is still viewed as a high-cost destination despite the fact that our hotels offer some of the best value in Europe. How will the Minister try to change that perception?
There will be a significant concentration on spend in the UK market. It is happening already through Tourism Ireland. The Government tried to use the St. Patrick's Day event to promote this country strongly. I was in London and at every media opportunity I made a strong pitch for this country. I pointed out that, as the Deputy said, we were never more competitive as regards hotel bedrooms in this country. We will have to tell the world. Some people see the reduction in the price of hotels as negative — hoteliers, for example — but I see it as positive. The message should be promoted more.
We are also promoting this country more as an activity centre. Unfortunately, even though we have one of the finest outdoors in the world that we can use year-round as it never gets too warm or too cold, people do not know about it. Some people who attended a major fair on outdoor activity holidays in England where there is considerable growth in that particular market said they were not aware of what was happening in this country. We must ensure that we send a clear marketing message to UK visitors. The number of visitors from the UK is in decline but the number coming to this country has declined more than to other destinations. We must also restore the American market, which I understand is showing positive signs of recovery this year. That is the message I have received from CIE Tours and golf clubs such as Ballybunion where much interest has been expressed this year from America, more so than in previous years. The American market will come back and the UK market will recover to some extent.
The visits of both President Obama and Queen Elizabeth will be very important for this country. It is important that we hang out our brightest colours and that both heads of state get a very good welcome in this country. We should use their visits to demonstrate what we have to offer, show our strengths and how our culture has developed. We must put some of our best-known performers on a worldwide basis in front of global television networks that will cover the events. It is important that we maximise those events to the full, both to honour the people who are coming but also to sell this country all over the world. There will be major interest in both of the visits.
The Minister has said much work will be done around the trips of President Obama and Queen Elizabeth. What exactly is the content and nature of the campaigns that will be run in Britain and America to capitalise on the visits in those markets themselves as opposed to making the most of it in the course of the visits in terms of beaming images back?
As someone who comes from the north-west region, I am interested in the reference in the reply to Question No. 33 to working with the Northern Ireland Executive. I am from north Donegal which is an area that must be developed in the future in terms of working with the Northern Ireland Executive to promote tourism there and in the region as a whole. Donegal will benefit in the same way as the North, for example, if we work together. What exactly is planned in terms of enhancing co-operation with the Northern Executive over the term of government?
St. Patrick's Day was an ideal opportunity to showcase this country in both America and the UK. To its credit, Tourism Ireland did an excellent job. As the Deputy is aware, Tourism Ireland is an all-island body. It is a company more than a statutory agency but it promotes the entire 32 counties. It is doing a very good job. It must keep people happy on both sides which is not always easy. Overall, it is getting its strategy in place and it is working well. It also works well with Fáilte Ireland on the tourism strategy I published after Christmas. I got much feedback from the industry that there were concerns about both agencies working together. I suggested that perhaps they should operate from the same building so that they could work together more closely. I do not know whether that is possible. There is an overlap between some of the personnel on the boards, which is important. The chief executives, chairpersons and others should work closely together.
I agree with the Deputy's point about Donegal. Tourism is important all along the western seaboard. It is important also that the Northern Ireland Executive should have a particular interest in tourism. It should support Tourism Ireland with the Republic of Ireland as much as possible, in order to encourage it to promote this country — all parts of it — more aggressively abroad.
Donegal is like Kerry. They both have some of the most beautiful landscape in the world and both counties could be havens for outdoor activity. Both have an untapped potential.
Promotion is ongoing in the UK and in America. I understand that Tourism Ireland is trying to get as much publicity as it can through the media before the visits of both the President and the Queen. The visits provide Tourism Ireland with a unique opportunity and it is front-loading its budget to spend as much as possible on promotion before both events take place. I will work closely with the Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure in the Northern Assembly. There is a major connection with tourism there through the arts because arts in this country provide the product which in most cases attracts tourists. Arts and tourism are intrinsically linked. I am sure the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar, will be doing the same as I am doing with his counterpart in Northern Ireland.
Considerable emphasis will be placed on the visits of both the Queen and President Obama. I am not aware of their itineraries and do not know whether they have been decided upon. However, the visits will attract great interest from people all over the world.
Those who come from areas such as south Leitrim and Roscommon realise tourism offers massive potential in terms of job creation. No other sector has as much potential in my area.
The Minister has mentioned many steps that need to be taken. A solution needs to be found to the problem of illegal dumping and wholesale littering. There is a saying, "Where litter lies, beauty dies". People come to Ireland for a variety of reasons, but one of the main ones is the country's clean, green image. Unfortunately, when visitors come here, I do not believe they see it. Perhaps in the summer, when the grass is high and the leaves are on the trees, one cannot see much litter, but during times when there is no growth the extent of illegal dumping can be seen. It is an abomination. What joined-up thinking will there be between the Minister's Department and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government with a view to doing something about this problem? One can package the tourism product whatever way one wants, but if the tourists who come here see litter left, right and centre, they will not return. I lived in Munich for nearly three years. One could literally tip one's dinner on any street and eat it, it was so clean. The same cannot be said for Ireland. Many Germans come here looking for a clean, green place only to discover that their own country is cleaner. If we are to succeed in this matter, our first step which could be one of the least expensive should be to link up with Tidy Towns organisations nationally and use the resource comprising the hundreds of thousands of unemployed, through some scheme, to help to clean up litter, perhaps with the promise of a job in the tourism sector in the future. Will there be a link between the two Departments?
I thank the Deputy for raising that matter. If one travels the roads, one will see the green margins are strewn with bottles and other forms of litter. It is an absolute disgrace. We are lucky that grass grows easily and quickly in this country because it camouflages, during the summer period when tourists come here, how filthy we are.
I am glad the Deputy mentioned streets. The buzzword in Europe is "street climate", which refers to security and cleanliness. We do not really match up when it comes to street climate in Ireland. Many of our towns are strewn with litter and other forms of waste. Ireland will have to take this issue very seriously. It is fine to clean up a place for the Tidy Towns competition — one sees great energy in this regard — but this will have to be done all year round.
The Deputy referred to illegal dumping. The penalties do not seem to be enforced enough, or it is very hard to achieve convictions.
I have been jailed for it.
The Deputy obviously learned his lesson. There seem to be no great deterrents to dumping large amounts of litter.
Joined-up thinking is a very important concept. When I was proposing the tourism policy, I suggested there should be more interdepartmental and intradepartmental co-operation to address issues such as this. It is a matter of taking a very practical approach. Various Departments cannot pass the buck to others; there must be shared responsibility in the protection of the environment.
In addition to having responsibility for the arts, I have responsibility for culture and heritage issues. I will take these matters very seriously because we need some form of national landscape policy to allow us to treat our landscape with respect. I will follow up this issue very aggressively while I am Minister.
With regard to Question No. 11, given the British Government's refusal to co-operate with the Barron inquiry into the Dublin-Monaghan bombings, is the visit of the Queen on the anniversary of the bombings not inappropriate? Does the Minister believe it will have negative tourism consequences, especially among many in the diaspora who look to our past and would not be happy with any such visit?
When I was in London, I addressed a huge assembly of young Irish people. I mentioned the Queen's visit and the feedback I received from them was very positive. They are very grateful that they can go to London and other parts of the United Kingdom to work and they are also very anxious that the Queen should receive a very warm welcome when she comes to Ireland. I did not encounter any negativity among the diaspora. It is very important that we treat the Queen with the respect that we would accord to any other visiting Head of State. We should welcome her in a very positive way and demonstrate at the same time how far we have come culturally. We should put on our greatest performance while she and President Obama are here. I hope the Queen's visit will not be associated with any negativity and that it will represent a very positive experience both for the Queen and the people. I hope this will result in more visitors from the United Kingdom, our biggest market. Just a few years ago the number of visitors from there was over 5.5 million, but this has decreased to under 3 million. We must help that market to recover. I hope, therefore, we can capitalise on the Queen's visit in that regard.
Sandra McLellan
Question:8 Deputy Sandra McLellan asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport his plans to reverse the decline in tourism in Youghal and east Cork; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6184/11]
View answerI refer the Deputy to my reply to Priority Question No. 2. If she wants to add anything further, she may do so.
Other countries that have identified a decline in tourism in key destinations have taken steps to reverse the trend. Will the Minister be considering such tourism destinations in Ireland, including Youghal and Cork city, to determine what steps can be taken to reverse the decline and make them more vibrant again? Will he consider helping those who manage heritage sites in Cork to offer day trips from Cork city to other areas in order to boost the sector? Is a mechanism or grants facility available to his Department to facilitate a strategic marina development in Youghal, given its important strategic position?
Overall, County Cork is a very vibrant tourist destination. West Cork is regarded as one of the primary tourist destinations in the country. People in Youghal and elsewhere can only regard what is being done in west Cork as a very good model on which to base a tourism product. Having a reasonable knowledge of east Cork and the Youghal area — I have relatives there — I realise it has considerable potential. This must be driven by local leaders, in addition to the Government. Any Government would consider tourism and agriculture, the strong points in east Cork, as fine drivers for the future. The Government will be putting particular emphasis on growing the number of tourists and supporting the farming community and food industry with a view to job creation. There is a connection between culinary tourism and areas such as Youghal in east Cork, which is also a traditional seaside resort like Ballybunion in County Kerry. Apparently, there is now more interest in our traditional seaside resorts than previously so there is more potential there also.