Denis Naughten
Question:10Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Minister for Transport; Tourism and Sport the steps he is taking to support tourism in the regions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22788/12]
View answerWednesday, 9 May 2012
Questions (10, 11)
Sandra McLellan
Question:239Deputy Sandra McLellan asked the Minister for Transport; Tourism and Sport his plans to better support tourism initiatives in rural areas; and the percentage of the overall budget allocated to developing rural tourism. [23392/12]
View answerOral answers (9 contributions)
I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 and 239 together. The Government recognises that tourism is important to all regions, employing an estimated 180,000 people, many in rural areas. The jobs initiative introduced last year and the Government's action plan for jobs 2012 recognise the vital contribution of tourism to employment, economic activity and foreign revenue earnings. The VAT reduction on a range of labour-intensive tourism services from 13.5% to 9%, enhances the competitiveness of our tourism product. The visa waiver scheme is encouraging visitors from emerging markets to include a visit to Ireland when visiting the UK. The Government has also significantly reduced the cost of employing people by halving employers' PRSI for employees on modest wages.
In addition, the necessary structures to deliver The Gathering Ireland 2013, a major tourism development to attract overseas visitors to all parts of Ireland, have been put in place with the target of bringing an extra 325,000 visitors here in 2013. The initiative will be launched domestically this Friday, following successful international and trade launches in recent weeks.
The year 2011 saw a welcome recovery in overseas visitor numbers with year-on-year growth of 6%. While there was a marginal decrease in overseas visits in the first three months of this year, I understand that industry partners are positive about prospects for the year, with reports of advance bookings and inquiries being up on this time last year. Industry representative groups are hopeful we can achieve our target of a 4.5% increase in visitor numbers for the year.
The Government is providing over €143 million to support tourism in 2012 across a range of activities including overseas and domestic marketing, investment in tourism product and vital business supports to develop tourism across Ireland, in both rural and urban areas. I am satisfied tourism agencies are taking the necessary steps to support the sector at national and regional level.
I thank the Minister for his reply. I also welcome the confirmation by the Minister that the 9% VAT rate will remain until the end of 2013 as this is a positive development.
I wish to raise the issue of the Cinderella regions of the country as regards tourism promotion and the midlands is one of those areas which has fallen well short when compared to other parts of the country. I am sure the Aire Stáit's county of Tipperary has the same problem. Is it planned to reconfigure the tourism regions? For example, there is the ludicrous situation where the River Shannon is a boundary for tourism regions rather than being used as an asset or for the development of tourism with a specific focus on the river itself. Has consideration been given to encouraging
There are currently no proposals to reconfigure the regions as this has been a recent reorganisation. I am not sure to what extent tourists even recognise the existence of regions in any case. People tend to visit destinations rather than a region created by a tourism body. People have been travelling to traditional tourism hot spots to which visitors have travelled for centuries and these destinations tend to do very well, such as Killarney, Galway and Dublin. It is a challenge to get people to go to other areas which are less visited and should be visited much more, the midlands being a case in point.
Dublin Tourism is being reintegrated into Fáilte Ireland and it will be used to disperse tourists who stay in Dublin by encouraging them to visit other parts of the country such as the areas around Dublin and beyond and ideally, for them to spend a night in these areas. One of the factors mitigating against overnight stays by tourists is the great improvement in the road network. It is now very common for visitors to take day trips to Clare and the Cliffs of Moher, for example or to other parts of the country whereas in the past they would have stayed the night. It would be desirable to have events at night to persuade them to stay later in a region and perhaps overnight.
I take the Minister's point but it is also important to develop packages so tourists visit more locations other than Clonmacnoise, on whichever side of the Shannon. The difficulty arises when different regions are in place. I acknowledge that Tourism Ireland is focusing on Athlone and developing tourism packages in that area. Hopefully this should bring about a positive development.
I ask the Minister to spearhead a proposal to bring together the Office of Public Works, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, the tourism agencies and even the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, to develop the types of tourism for the midlands such as heritage tourism. Issues about access can be dealt with by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the upgrading of facilities can be arranged by the OPW and the National Parks and Wildlife Services. I refer as an example to Lough Ree which has an abundance of heritage assets. A total of 2.5 million tourists visited those type of facilities last year in various parts of the country. I refer also to activity and walking tourism with a total of 750,000 tourists last year. The midlands has plenty of capacity to develop this sector of tourism.
I am not sure I can spearhead such an initiative but if the Deputy has specific proposals I would be happy to have a meeting with him to see what can be done in this regard and involving those agencies. The most visited OPW site is the Rock of Cashel which is not situated in a traditional tourism hot spot, in the core of Ireland. It is crucial to develop a cluster of attractions because people are more likely to stay. There has been a lot happening on the development of activity tourism, in particular cycling and walking tourism, through the development of green ways and if we can afford it, the development of cycle and walking routes across Ireland which is a good way to bring people off the beaten track and encourage them to stay overnight in places they would not otherwise consider.
I thank the Minister for his response. The Gathering is a significant initiative and I am delighted to hear it is being launched this Friday. People have been very enthusiastic about it. However, like many other Deputies, I ask about the arrangements and the criteria for funding under the scheme. I ask what levels of co-operation exist between the Minister's Department and the cultural and tourism bodies and the local authorities regarding the Gathering initiative.
I refer to the Gathering initiative and what Deputy Naughten said about the Cinderella areas. If ever there was an area for growth it is the area that I come from, the Leitrim-Roscommon area bordering the Shannon. All of the ingredients are there. When it comes to the Gathering initiative, the ingredients are certainly there, considering that for all of my lifetime and for my father's lifetime, the only thing we could ever do was leave the area and emigrate and move to a different part of the world. From the point of view of the Gathering initiative, there will be any amount of people coming back and from the point of view of having ingredients, they are all there. We have the longest border with the mightiest river in these two islands. I come from south Leitrim and Roscommon. Only one eighth of the amount of money spent on tourism in Galway is spent in our county. I am not saying we will ever reach the level of Galway but to aspire to reach one third of the level spent in Galway would lead to increases in revenue of €90 million and at €30,000 for every job that is created, there is the potential to create 3,000 jobs. Instead of concentrating on the areas that everyone normally visits, I am trying to get a six foot eight man to reach to seven foot, which will never happen. We must try to get the ones that have growth potential and then jobs will be created. We have the ingredients and the Minister is the baker, so bake them.
The final leg of the Volvo ocean race visits Galway city this July. One of the events being organised by Let's Do It Global is a global village which will promote Irish food, innovation, the marine and tourism. Given that 350 accredited members of the media from participating countries including China, Canada and the United States, will be in Galway, does the Minister agree this presents an opportunity to promote the Gathering initiative?
The website for the Gathering initiative is now active and it contains the information. The initiative will be launched on this Friday and more information will be available then. The events and festivals programme is not yet fully developed but we are getting there. There has been engagement with the City and County Managers' Association and also with the cultural institutions. The Gathering initiative should not be regarded as a source of grant aid because it is about what people and communities can do and what they can contribute. There will be some funding for existing festivals but it is not intended that thousands of grants will be distributed to bodies, towns or families organising events. That is just not possible. It is important to get that message out and understood. We will certainly set up a platform by which we can assist people to organise gatherings, but we will not be handing out money for people to organise gatherings beyond a limited number of festivals and events.
As regards Deputy Luke ‘Ming' Flanagan's question, I think the ingredients are there in many parts of the country. Places such as Killarney and Westport, which have led the way in tourism in many ways, look at it differently from the way the Deputy does. They say they are the bakers who will take the lead for their areas. In Westport, all the hoteliers contribute to a fund which is used to market the town. Killarney has been co-operating like that for a long time also. The Government can assist but the bakers are the people on the ground who make the most of what they have, and perhaps do not expect No. 44 Kildare Street to do it for them.
The Volvo Ocean Race will be a great event and I am very much looking forward to it. I do not know if there are plans to market The Gathering at it, but I agree with Deputy Walsh, given the number of journalists attending, it makes sense to do so. I will certainly take that up with The Gathering's project team.