Vol. 516 No. 1
17 Mr. M. Higgins asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation the plans, if any, he has to provide advice or assistance for the tourism sector to establish IT marketing programmes in view of the increased use of the Internet for holiday booking; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7021/00]
The emergence of e-commerce offers exciting new opportunities for tourism promotion and tourism policies. It has the potential to impact on each part of the tourism distribution chain including suppliers such as hotels and golf courses, intermediaries such as tour operators and travel agents, sectoral, regional and national marketing organisations and finally, the perceptions, behaviour and purchasing patterns of consumers.
In the past five years Bord Fáilte, in conjunction with the industry and its strategic partners, has been at the forefront in introducing essential changes to avail of the opportunities presented by e-commerce.
Bord Fáilte introduced its Tourism Brand Ireland Website in 1997 and almost immediately it became a primary source for information on Ireland and the range of tourism attractions available countrywide. In 1999, two million visitors accessed the Bord Fáilte Internet services which offer a wide range of services including dedicated sites specific to overseas markets, regional tourism marketing sites, as well as the on-line reservations service provided through one of its strategic partners.
Infrastructure has been put in place to ensure greater access to dynamic information, provision of inventory on all available accommodation and other tourism services, as well as a range of motivational tools to encourage visitors to Ireland as a tourism destination.
The main markets now have their own tailored world websites and this enables non-English speaking countries to travel around Ireland in their own language. The overseas tourism marketing initiative and the regional tourism authorities also have their own sites.
19 Mr. Bradford asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation when the programme expenditure review on the overseas tourism marketing initiative will be published. [6938/00]
21 Mr. Stanton asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation when the programme expenditure review on the operational programme for local urban and rural development will be published. [6935/00]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 19 and 21 together.
Expenditure reviews relating to the operational programme for local urban and rural development 1994-1999 and the overseas tourism marketing initiative have been completed and submitted to the steering committee for programme evaluation, which is chaired by the Department of Finance.
It is understood that these reviews will be considered at the next meeting of this committee, following which I will make the respective reports available to the Deputies.
