Written Answers. - Tourism Industry.
Breeda Moynihan-Cronin
Ceist:
976
Mrs. B. Moynihan-Cronin
asked the
Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation
the number of cancellations from the USA following events on 11 September 2001 to date; the number of cancellations confirmed to January 2002; the cost of such cancellations to the tourist industry here; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
[21776/01]
No official estimates are as yet available in relation to the number or value of cancellations from the United States arising from the tragic events of 11 September 2001. However, although it is accepted that it is still too early to assess the overall impact on international travel patterns, it is clear that the terrorist attacks in the US are likely to impact on visitor numbers to Ireland, in particular from America, for the balance of this year and into 2002, leading to the first annual decline in visitor numbers for a decade.
The latest official CSO tourism and travel statistics published on Friday, 28 September indicate that earnings from overseas visitors to Ireland during the first half of 2001 showed an increase of 3.8% to £1.3 billion on the same period last year. Overall visitor numbers for the first half of 2001 were down 5.2% to 2.7 million on the same period last year, with the slowdown being most acute in the case of Great Britain and North America. Total overseas visitor numbers for 2001 are now likely to show a further reduction on that figure following the terrorist attacks.
Bord Fáilte's original estimate for 2001 was for an increase of 5% in overall visitor numbers, although that estimate had been revised significantly downwards in the light of the anticipated adverse impact of the foot and mouth disease emergency earlier this year. Ironically, Irish tourism was beginning to show signs of recovery from this setback, mainly due to the early lifting of the major foot and mouth restrictions in line with expert technical advice and subsequently due to the beneficial impact of a targeted £10 million international and domestic tourism marketing reassurance campaign by Bord Fáilte.
Since the tragic events of 11 September I and officials of my Department have met with senior management of both Bord Fáilte and Tourism Ireland Limited, the new all island tourism marketing company, and with a high level delegation from the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation, ITIC, to take stock of the situation and to put in place arrangements to ensure that marketing strategies will be developed to deal with the fall out from the recent atrocity for the remainder of this years' season and for 2002. Critical factors will include not only the nature and duration of the response to the terrorist attacks, but also the speed with which public confidence in air travel can be restored.
Given the changed environment, it is vitally important that there is a root and branch reassessment of our tourism marketing strategies, including how and where we focus our business, so that the substantial Exchequer funding already allocated for this area under the national development plan has maximum impact.
Last Thursday, Bord Fáilte and Tourism Ireland Limited confirmed that they were urgently re-examining, in consultation with the tourism industry and through the tourism marketing partnership structure, their respective marketing programmes and plans for the remainder of 2001 and for 2002. Bord Fáilte announced late last week a £750,000 programme of additional immediate measures for the British and Irish markets. Meanwhile, the new chief executive of Tourism Ireland Limited is already spear-heading the review of marketing plans for 2002 with the intention of making a major announcement early next month in conjunction with the launch of a new advertising campaign for the island of Ireland. These moves have been welcomed by ITIC.
The Government is also very conscious of the important link between competitive air access and future tourism flows and has been working closely with the Irish aviation sector to help resolve recent difficulties.
Given the changed circumstances, it is vitally important to quickly bed down the process of institutional change now under way in the tourism State agencies, which have remained unchanged in structure since the early 1960s, and to complete an orderly handover of responsibility to Tourism Ireland Limited well in time for the 2002 marketing season. I also welcome the initial positive expression of support from the council of CERT and the board of Bord Fáilte to the proposed creation of a new integrated tourism development agency. My intention is that we have strong structures in place to implement our medium-term plans for international marketing, product and human resource development, as contained in the national development plan, in order to help the tourism industry to meet the major challenges that lie ahead.
