Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 21 July 2016
788. Deputy Brendan Ryan asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the contingency plans his Department has put in place to address any negative impact from Brexit on the tourism and hospitality sector here; his plans to protect the important British market; if he has met with his counterparts in the British, Northern Ireland and Scottish Governments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23438/16]
View answerGreat Britain has consistently been Ireland's most important source market for visits to Ireland, with just over 3.5 million visits in 2015. CSO figures for the period January to May 2016 show further strong performance from the GB market with growth in visit numbers of over 15.7%, when compared with the same period of 2015.
Tourism Ireland, the agency responsible for marketing the island of Ireland as a visitor destination in overseas markets, has an extensive marketing programme in place for the second half of 2016 which is underway in 23 markets including Great Britain. Tourism Ireland is closely monitoring the situation following the UK referendum, and is meeting regularly with tourism industry representatives to plan ahead in this new market environment.
In the longer term, the Programme for Government commits to implementing the policy objectives in the Tourism Policy Statement "People, Place and Policy – Growing Tourism to 2025" and achieving the targets for Irish tourism contained therein. The UK vote does not change this.
While the GB market contributed 41% of overseas visits in 2015, the share of overseas visitor revenue from British visitors is approximately 23%. There is a commitment in the Tourism Policy Statement to prioritising tourism marketing efforts towards those markets providing higher revenue returns. One of the actions in the Tourism Action Plan 2016-2018 is to develop a new strategy to increase visitor numbers and revenue from new and developing markets. The terms of reference for this review are being finalised at present.
There are no changes to how people can travel between Ireland and the UK in the short term and I am confident that Ireland's strong tourism offering will ensure that the Great Britain market will continue to be an important source of overseas visits to Ireland in the short, medium and long term.
While I have not yet met with the Ministers with responsibility for tourism in the UK Government or the Scottish Government, I did meet with the Northern Ireland Minister for the Economy, Simon Hamilton MLA, at the 22nd Plenary meeting of the North South Ministerial Council on 4 July. It was agreed at the meeting that a full audit will be undertaken in all sectors of North South cooperation, including tourism, to identify the possible impacts, risks, opportunities and contingencies arising in the phases preceding and following the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.
