Before I reported progress I had been referring to the situation that now exists eight or nine months after the Minister had come into this House last July and given an undertaking that the necessary action would be taken to overcome the difficulties which had then appeared in the tourist industry. It is an appalling situation and a completely indefensible one as far as the Minister is concerned. We find that instead of the improvement in Bord Fáilte, particularly in the marketing section, which the Minister had undertaken would be brought about, the situation, as we enter a new tourist season so far as Bord Fáilte is concerned, has deteriorated considerably. Without going into detail which would take a couple of hours, the sitution now is that instead of facing the problems which were there last summer and which should have been tackled in the early autumn in time to launch a realistic dynamic promotion and marketing campaign over the winter months we find that the marketing manager has resigned, several key marketing posts in the company have been left unfilled, staff morale is at its lowest and the industrial market research company which examined the internal set-up of Bord Fáilte have made some very drastic recommendations.
We find there are fewer British travel agents pushing Irish Ireland than ever before. The Hotel and Accommodation Directory for this year, the most important piece of promotion literature which should have been in the hands of travel agents last November or October, was not circulated until February. We also find the current issue of that directory has undergone drastic change and has been considerably reduced in size. I should like the Minister to explain why there was such delay in circulating the directory to travel agents. How does the Tourist Board expect travel agents to sell holidays in Ireland when they did not have the official accommodation directory available to them? What do these travel agents and tour operators abroad think of Ireland when they see this cheap, shoddy little book which we issued this year and which lacks the most basic information? It is not even related to the previous directory. How can tour operators and travel agents sell Ireland without this information? When they got the book it lacked most of the vital information. Despite the fact that the Minister wrote to me himself—I appreciate that he did so when I raised the matter at Question Time—and said there was no undue delay, I have a copy of a letter sent by Bord Fáilte to travel agents at the end of January apologising for the delay in circulating the hotel guide because of production difficulties. This is a very serious matter. We are only codding ourselves if we think we can sell Ireland abroad if our Tourist Board stoop to these slipshod, inefficient methods.
In addition, we find, particularly in Britain, that in the tourist markets abroad the State bodies other than Bord Fáilte which are engaged in tourism such as Aer Lingus, CIE, Shannon Free Airport Development Company and the B and I Line are in open, cut-throat competition with one another. There is intense rivalry and petty jealousy that should not exist. I am not making this allegation lightly. I had occasion to go to Britain at the end of January to investigate air services between Britain and France and particularly the decision to terminate the direct Manchester-Shannon Air Service. I spent six days investigating it. I have written a report of which I shall give a copy to the Minister later; I have already given it to some State bodies directly concerned. I want to quote one significant paragraph from it which says:
The picture that emerges from my investigations in Britain is one of where five State bodies using taxpayers' money and all having spent some money in making the Manchester-Shannon service viable, were unable to generate enough business to fill three aircraft per week. For me the worst aspect of this whole exercise——
that is my investigation——
was the way in which it revealed a total lack of co-operation between the five State bodies mentioned. I have been appalled at the way in which one tries to blame the other and at the rivalry and petty jealousy that exist. Indeed, the most difficult part of my entire investigation was to try to sift through the maze of contradictory statements and view-points from representatives of the different State bodies.
This is an appalling situation. In my opinion, the greatest problem for the Minister in regard to the tourist industry is to tackle this situation of the relationship between the various State bodies. The Minister's job would be very simple in regard to the tourist industry if he were dealing only with Bord Fáilte but in recent years other semi-State bodies have entered into the tourist business. Somebody will have to decide what the specific function of each of these bodies is to be. The situation in relation to Britain is disastrous. In reply to my question about the recent operation of tourist workshops in North America the Minister said that the result was satisfactory. I have met people who were there and I am pleased to acknowledge that that is so, but one comment I heard was that there is considerable duplication and lack of co-ordination between the efforts of semi-State bodies in North America as well.
Aer Lingus is not servicing the British tourist market. The policy of Aer Lingus so far as Britain and the Continent are concerned is that its services are geared to feeding the trans-Atlantic route. Because of modern technological developments and bigger and higher powered aircraft the long haul service is the one that pays; the short haul services are different propositions. No steps have been taken by the Minister to introduce realistic cross-Channel fares and no effort has been made by either Bord Fáilte or the six semi-State bodies operating in Britain to cater for the huge ethnic market there. There are an estimated four million people of Irish parentage in Great Britain and this vast market has been taken for granted by us down through the years. These unfortunate people are being fleeced by the shipping companies and the airlines. A constituent of mine returning to Limerick has to pay £31 10s to fly from London to Shannon. It must not be taken for granted that second and third generation Irish will spend their holidays at home. A scheme should be devised, and I see no reason why it could not be devised, to enable special travel concessions to be given to people returning home to stay with friends and relatives who do not need hotel accommodation. I have suggested this time and time again but fares continue to increase.
Two trainee nurses who are neighbours of mine returned home for three days at Christmas to visit their mother who had fallen ill. It cost them each £31 10s return air fare from London to Shannon and they also had their fare from the hospital to the airport and from Shannon Airport to the particular part of Limerick they were going to. Without fear of contradiction I can say that it cost those two girls £70 in travelling expenses alone. They could go to Spain for a fortnight all-in for the same price. These are hard facts and we have got to face up to them. There is no point in blaming the postal strike and the political situation in Northern Ireland. Neither the Tourist Board nor the semi-State bodies are doing their job in the British market. I am very enthusiastic about the future potential of the Irish tourist industry but I have a sence of frustration about what has been going on. The Minister will have to devise some system to ensure that the semi-State bodies will co-operate with the private interests engaged in the business in the British market.
I make no apologies for referring to the ethnic market in Britain. We should be ashamed of the way we have neglected our own kith and kin in Britain. The Most Reverend Dr. Harty, Bishop of Killaloe, pointed out some months ago that we are not pleading for any charity for these Irish people; it is very good business in the material sense to try to encourage as many Irish people to come home as possible. In most cases they are coming into villages and hamlets which would not normally see tourists and their money is as good as any other tourists' money.
Extra money has been voted for the advertising campaign which has recently been carried out. I have a breakdown of the advertising expenditure on the British market this year. I have the official advertising schedule from Bord Fáilte, but I will not say how or from whom I got it. In my opinion Bord Fáilte's advertising policy in Britain has been wrongly orientated. They have advertised in the Sunday Times colour supplement, the Observer colour supplement, the Daily Telegraph, the Guardian and the Radio Times. All this advertising has been concentrated on the upper market.
I have been to Britain on numerous occasions and I have engaged in the hard physical exercise of persuading tourists to come here for their holidays. I have arranged for them to come here and I have looked after them when they arrived. I believe Bord Fáilte's advertising policy is totally wrong. The theory behind advertising in such papers as the Sunday Times is that wealthy people read them and if they come here they will spend more money, but what we seem to forget is that with the abolition of the £50 travel allowance this type of tourist can go to any part of the world for his holiday. I am not advocating that the schedule should be changed completely and that no advertising should be done in this type of news media. I must say the colour advertising in the Sunday Times was beautiful and has been highly commented on, but the stark fact is that it is not achieving the results is should achieve.
A much higher proportion of our advertising in Britain should be directed to the mass circulation newspapers and to advertising on radio and television. To prove I am not talking through my hat in this I can show that this could be most effective. A very good friend of mine, a leading travel agent in Manchester, who brings on average 15,000 to 20,000 people into this country every year, took a full page in The Guardian and three half-minute slots on television this year by way of experiment. The television advertising cost £695. The Guardian advertisement cost £700. The expenditure was almost identical. What were the results? From The Guardian advertisetisement he got approximately 600 replies; for roughly the same expenditure on television he got 6,438 replies.