Vol. 255 No. 11
asked the Minister for Transport and Power if he will make a report on the national tourism conference of 15th July with special reference to the views of those who attended on the reasons for the drop in tourist traffic this year and on the steps that should be taken to promote additional traffic.
17.
asked the Minister for Transport and Power the number of meetings he has had with the National Tourism Council since its inception; the dates of such meetings; and the matters discussed.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 16 and 17 together. The National Tourism Council was formally inaugurated on 30th October, 1970. I attended the inaugural meeting and had an exchange of views with the council. In the meantime, Bord Fáilte, who are members of the council, have maintained close liaison with the council and have had discussions with them to ensure the fullest co-operation and consultation in the interest of the whole tourist industry.
I met the council again on 15th July, 1971, and the Chairman and the Director-General of Bord Fáilte were also present. The present position of the various sectors of the industry was reviewed in detail and there was a full and frank discussion of the problems now facing it.
The council attributed these problems to publicity arising from the unrest in Northern Ireland, economic difficulties abroad and increasing prices generally. While carriers show increased traffic from overseas markets for the first six months of the year, in comparison with the corresponding period of 1970, and expect overall increases in 1971 on 1970 returns, hoteliers and guesthouse owners report a fall in business to date. Supplementary holiday accommodation premises and car rental firms record growth in traffic for the first six months. This report of the position agrees with the results of the Bord Fáilte traffic survey for June, 1971.
The apparent conflict between the position as reported by the sea and air carriers and that reported by hoteliers and guesthouses has been attributed to reductions in the volume of traffic from Northern Ireland, and a fall-off in the domestic market as well as an increasing volume of ethnic traffic which does not use hotel or guesthouse accommodation to the same extent as other traffic.
The council considered that no useful purpose would be served in promoting, at this stage, a special overseas campaign by Bord Fáilte to attract additional traffic for the 1971 season and agreed that the board should now concentrate on the measures to be taken for the 1972 season. Bord Fáilte have undertaken to submit to me, after full consultation with the National Tourism Council, a report on the steps necessary in this regard and I have undertaken to examine these proposals as sympathetically as possible and as a matter of urgency.
Can the Minister offer any explanation for the extraordinary situation he has just revealed in that reply, that from 30th October until 15th July he had no meeting with the National Tourism Council? Is that correct?
Consistently during all that period I had very close contact with the Chairman, the Director General and other officials of Bord Fáilte who maintained a liaison week in week out, and month in month out, with the National Tourism Council and with the various interests represented on it.
Is the Minister aware that in reply to a question which I asked him about four or five months ago he undertook here in this House to have frequent meetings and consultations with the National Tourism Council?
I have had them via Bord Fáilte.
The Minister had no meeting with the council for eight months.
I have met individual interests represented on the National Tourism Council. I can assure the Deputy that there was total liaison at all stages between me and the National Tourism Council.
If there was such close co-operation and liaison as the Minister has told us between himself and this body over the past seven months, why was he so wrong in his predictions and in the optimistic view he took when speaking in this House? Would the Taoiseach not agree that it would be better to fact facts—sorry, the Minister——
I blush.
Would the Minister tell the people the truth? Is he not aware that hotels are advertising for clients on the radio and in the Press, hotels which were booked out five or six months in advance in any other year? Why not state the facts and tell the people the truth?
I was careful at all stages to make predictions that are fully sustainable, as the Deputy will see if he reads what I said at all stages. My main concern at this stage is to ensure that by the end of the year we can have a debate on the subject—and I know who will win in that debate.
Is the Minister aware that in exactly the same week last year he made exactly the same statement here in relation to the 1971 tourist season? Could the Minister throw any light on what is, in fact, the most controversial aspect of the current tourist situation? What new factors, over and above those factors which had an adverse effect on the 1970 season, have emerged in respect of the present season?
I emphasised that, I think, in my reply. Carrier figures are up. Car ferry traffic is up by 14 per cent. Air traffic from the United States is up by 7 per cent. It is the same from continental Europe. Traffic by air from Britain is up by 4 per cent. The carrier position is up and that is what we debated and discussed in detail at the meeting of the National Tourist Council last week. The inevitable conclusion from that is that Northern Ireland traffic to here is down and not enough people here in our own community are spending their holidays at home. These are the two practical reasons that emerged from the meeting.
If what the Minister says is true where are the people staying? Is he aware that hotels throughout the country are almost empty? Would he consider going on a fact finding mission to find out the facts for himself?
The Deputy should have listened carefully to what I said. It does not seem to have percolated. The fact that hotel accommodation figures are not up to expectations and that carrier traffic exceeds last year's figures means there are less people in this island, north and south, spending their holidays here in guesthouses and hotels.
I am calling Question No. 17.
I answered that.
On Question No. 17, the fact that carrier traffic is up is no indication. Surely you can have less people coming in in more motor cars. Surely the Minister understands that. That is what is happening.
I am talking of numbers. There are more people coming.
