Jim Higgins
Ceist:34 Mr. Higgins (Mayo) asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation his views on the latest official statistics for the number of visiting tourists; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2914/02]
Priority Questions. - Tourism Industry.
David Stanton
Ceist:38 Mr. Stanton asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation the actions being taken by his Department to assist the tourism industry and to increase the number of tourists visiting Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2850/02]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 34 and 38 together.
The tourism industry suffered its first major setback in a decade in 2001 with the impact of the foot and mouth disease crisis in the spring and the fall off in business arising from the events of 11 September. While official Central Statistics Office statistics for 2001 will not be available for some months, the number of overseas visitors in 2001 is estimated by Bord Fáilte to have fallen by 7% or approximately 500,000. However, preliminary indications are that the reduction in overseas revenue earnings may be appreciably lower. Also on a positive note, domestic holiday business remained buoyant last year, with expenditure rising by 16% according to latest Bord Fáilte estimates. CERT estimates employment losses in the tourism and hospitality sector in 2001 at about 2,000 permanent jobs, with a reduction of 6,000 in part-time jobs.
There is little doubt that 2002 will be a challenging year for Irish tourism. Tourism Ireland Limited, the new all-island tourism marketing company which was successfully launched in Dublin and Belfast in November 2001, has estimated that the best case scenario for 2002 is a return to 2000 business levels. This is equivalent to 6.1 million overseas visitors to the Republic of Ireland and associated foreign earnings of close to 3.8 billion.
A number of initiatives are being progressed during 2002 as part of the most radical shake-up of tourism policy in recent decades. These include the establishment of a new national tourism development authority to follow on from the operational start-up of Tourism Ireland Limited, the roll-out of robust and focused tourism marketing plans for 2002 together with a fundamental reappraisal by the new company of our overall overseas marketing strategy, ensuring the appropriate development of tourism products and facilities through the launch of a new tourism product development scheme, and working to ensure that a broad and competitive network of access links by air and sea to Ireland is in place.
One of the key challenges for 2002 and into the future is to ensure that delivery arrangements for those tourism functions remaining with Bord Fáilte and CERT are the most effective in helping Irish industry to achieve the optimum position for itself in the international market place, and so derive maximum economic benefit from the work of Tourism Ireland Ltd. Bringing together the product and human resource development functions in one agency will provide the best delivery model for achieving this objective.
Following high level discussions with Bord Fáilte and CERT, the Government approved last November the creation of a national tourism development authority to promote the development of sustainable tourist facilities and services, including the promotion of training, human resources and marketing skills. I have since then, established an implementation group which is due to report back to me by the end of March, to progress this matter with a view to the new authority being operational in 2003.
Following consultation with industry interests, Tourism Ireland Ltd and Bord Fáilte have recently launched comprehensive marketing plans for 2002 designed to address the new market situation with a view to recovering as much business as possible. Tourism Ireland's programme budget of 27 million for 2002 for the international marketing of the island of Ireland is the largest ever annual budget allocated for such a purpose and is supplemented by substantial niche-product marketing funding by Bord Fáilte. Tourism marketing funding was enhanced by a further 11million in the recent budget.
Additional InformationTourism Ireland has already launched a new and exciting TV and print international advertising campaign for the island of Ireland, developed at a cost of approximately 5 million. The board of the new company has made it clear that its marketing plans for 2002 will be responsive and flexible in nature, with an emphasis on tactical marketing to take account of the changing circumstances arising from the events of 11 September. The focus on Britain, our nearest and largest market, will be particularly strong. The board sees a particular opportunity in the short break and additional holiday markets as Ireland is well positioned as a destination that is easily accessible by sea, particularly for the own car segment. Tourism Ireland is also targeting a revival of the holiday market from continental Europe during 2002 through prioritising geographic markets, by selectively encouraging and supporting new access gateways and routes into Ireland and by getting an increased number of operators to feature Ireland in their promotional activities.
Bord Fáilte, which will operate in partnership with Tourism Ireland, has also recently launched its own complementary programme of activities for 2002 which it will undertake on behalf of and in partnership with the industry. This will include:
an extensive promotion campaign in the Ireland market, both North and South, partic ularly from February to May and September to November, to encourage season extension;
marketing niche and specialist products such as golf, angling, heritage, walking-cycling, equestrian, watersports, conference and English as a foreign language;
implementing the sports tourism initiative which is designed to win major international sporting events for Ireland into the future, and utilising the promotional opportunities arising from the positive media coverage associated with such events being in Ireland. During 2002 these will include the world cross country championships, the Smurfit European Open, the American Express world championships, and the ITU triathlon world cup series;
developing guidelines and implementing the recent Government initiative to expand regional tourism though festivals and cultural events; and
providing a promotional platform for media and journalist visits from the various markets.
Bord Fáilte attaches particular importance to the partnership approach with industry and there has been very extensive consultation, including a number of meetings of its tourism marketing partnership, in the drawing up of these plans.
Following State aids approval by the European Commission, I was pleased yesterday to launch the new tourism product development scheme, which will be administered by Bord Fáilte and involves some 130 million of public sector funding under the BMW and southern and eastern regional operational programmes of the national development plan.
The overall objective of this scheme is the development of the tourism product in a sustainable way, that widens the spatial spread of tourism, diverts pressure from highly developed areas and increases the under-performing regions' share of overseas tourism revenue. The scheme includes three categories as follows:
the development of major attractors and clusters of attractors;
the development of special interest pursuits; and
tourism environmental management.
The first two of these categories are targeted specifically at regions that are currently under performing in terms of tourism development and are designed to help such regions to achieve their tourism potential. The successful realisation of the measures is, however, dependent on and directly related to the delivery by relevant local and other authorities of the necessary infrastructure, facilities and controls.
A very critical component for regaining business in 2002 will be maintaining a broad network of competitive access links by air and sea to Ireland. We are particularly well served by the levels of investment in recent years in sea access, which has seen the emergence of a high quality and competitive route network, in particular across the Irish sea and to France. My Department has been working closely with the Department of Public Enterprise to safeguard as much of the air access route infrastructure as possible so that, as traveller confidence is restored and as the recovery comes, we will be best placed to avail of it.
The Government is also anxious to promote new air route development, in particular from the large continental European market which has not performed up to expectations in recent years. The extension by Aer Rianta of its incentive scheme for new routes to Dublin, Cork and Shannon Airports is very encouraging and I welcome recent announcements of new air services for 2002 which will go some way to compensating for the loss of services arising from the shake out of the airline sector arising from the events of 11 September.
An interdepartmental group, chaired by the Department of the Taoiseach and including representatives of my Department, has been established to look at the interaction between access transport, particularly by air, and tourism with a view to identifying further possibilities for increasing the flow of visitors to Ireland. The work of that group is very substantially advanced and I hope the Government will consider its report very shortly.
The tourism industry has matured greatly in recent years and has built up a tremendous product base that makes Ireland a very attractive international tourist destination. I welcome the response of many businesses in the sector that are already readjusting their marketing and pricing strategies to secure extra businesses in the current difficult climate. I cannot emphasise strongly enough the continuing need to maintain competitiveness and keep prices as attractive as possible. I am confident the recent attractively priced offers from the air and sea carriers, accommodation providers and others, will play a key role in helping the industry to work its way out of current difficulties.
(Mayo): I thank the Minister for the information he has given the House but he has not answered my question. I asked if he was satisfied as to the accuracy of the tourism figures. Does he accept that the figures are grossly distorted and that what would be classified as tourists in Bord Fáilte figures includes business people who have been out of the country for a day or two, returning football fans and people who have been away for a weekend or are returning from holidays? Does the Minister not accept that there is a major question mark regarding all the figures relating to tourism numbers and the revenue which is supposed to accrue from the tourism industry?
I read three pages of a six page reply which included the answers to much of what the Deputy has asked. However, this issue has been raised on a number of occasions in the past. I cannot imagine a more comprehensive way of gathering figures or a more competent organisation to do so than the Central Statistics Office. There are five areas in which we gather statistics. The Central Statistics Office conducts a country of residence survey – CRS – and a passenger car inquiry. Bord Fáilte compiles tourism numbers and revenue, and conducts a survey of overseas tourists – SOT. The United Kingdom tourism survey – UKTS – and the Irish travel survey – ITS – are also used.
Day visitors, football fans, business travellers and other categories referred to by the Deputy are dealt with separately. In 1997, for example, 497,000 were surveyed and these figures were broken down by category. We use the term visitors and all of these visitors spend money in Ireland. All foreign visitors, in whatever category, bring funding into the Irish Exchequer.
(Mayo): How many of these can be classified as genuine tourists. The Minister's figures include people returning having seen Manchester United play in Old Trafford or Liverpool in Anfield, people who have been out of the country on a one day business trip and people returning from holidays in Spain or France. I travel through Dublin, Shannon and Knock airports regularly and no one has ever confronted me with a questionnaire or asked me how long I have been out of the country, where I went or when I intend to come back. How can the Minister come up with the global figure of 6 million tourists and billions of pounds in revenue on the basis of hit and miss surveys carried out by a variety of agencies.
The Minister's reply underpins the point which Deputy Stanton and I have been making repeatedly, having met the various segments of the industry, that the Minister's figures are grossly inflated and unscientific.
I could go through the document from which I have been quoting but I would prefer to give it to the Deputies and allow them to read it because this is an interesting question which I have asked many times. We categorise visitors as people travelling for business, people travelling for holiday and leisure and people visiting friends and relatives. In the year 2000, for example, 1.85 million people were business visitors, 3.4 million came for leisure and recreation, 1.6 million were visiting friends and relatives and 350,000 were in other categories. This made a total of 6.1 million people. I know the point the Deputy is making. Last night I read the document from which I am quoting and it deals with the figures very comprehensively. It would be helpful if the Deputy would read it also.
I would be glad to see a copy of that document and to analyse it. I thank the Minister for that offer. He spoke about access in his reply. What is his view of low cost airlines and what action is he taking with regard to low cost airlines setting up bases in Ireland?
The Deputy is aware that I have always been a supporter of low cost access and I have been working on this issue for a number of months. It is hoped an announcement will be made soon with regard to further low cost access facilities. It has been shown in the past that low cost access helps to bring visitors and the setting up of a low cost base in a particular area stimulates people in that area to come to Ireland. When we set up a low cost base in Frankfurt, for example, it was estimated that more than 70% of the people coming from that area were German. Low cost access increases the number of people coming into the country. I am a full supporter of providing facilities which lead to low cost access.