Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the presentations from both organisations. I thank the witnesses for providing us with an update on the work they are doing and congratulate them on the success they have achieved over the last couple of difficult trading years.

I recognise that both bodies have dealt with the value-for-money issue the market faces. There is still a difficulty with hotels. Mr. Quinn referred to it when he said the solution may be to put more hotel rooms into the area. Perhaps, that can happen and hotels can be built more cheaply than before. My contact with the industry suggests that it is not fair to say hoteliers are coining it as they try to increase the price. Many of them are struggling. The private ones are struggling in competition with what they refer to as the "NAMA hotels", which is a problem that is probably resolving itself as NAMA sells on its assets to larger institutions which will want to see an immediate return on their investments. There is a difficult situation for both private and institutional hotel owners currently. They will have to see some level of increase to be sustainable. The market will have to bear that to some extent. Mr. Quinn referred to the city between the canals. There is no doubt that if one looks at comparable city destinations internationally, Dublin continues to represent fairly good value for money by comparison even in the high season. There are not too many other cities in Europe where one can obtain room rates at less than €100.

I was taken by Mr. Quinn's reference to the deeper understanding of the customer and his organisation's efforts in that regard. It is particularly good. He referred to the experience rather than to look at the demographic. That is right. Does Fáilte Ireland have any long-term projects in mind on the creation of attractions which might not be synonymous with Ireland to cater for the experiences that are emerging or which already exist? I am thinking of the obvious issue that Ireland is not really seen as a family holiday destination for many reasons, principally because of the weather. Yet, people will go camping to Brittany over the summer where they are not guaranteed weather much better than one would get in parts of the south east and mid-west. Has work been done to develop a more major attraction that might focus on or target the family market?

I acknowledge that there implications and issues on investment and its source. Mr. Quinn is right to say that we must continue to invest in the product, which we do. He referred to the investment of €8 million in the capital infrastructure for the Wild Atlantic Way and a total of €120 million which has been invested in almost 60 significant capital projects. I hope that as the State agency charged with tourism development, Fáilte Ireland is knocking on the door of Government looking for more capital investment on an ongoing basis. I acknowledge that to some extent it must cut its expectations based on what it anticipates is available. However, an agency like Fáilte Ireland should push the boat out continuously in terms of new ideas and force Government to move somewhat there. While the agency has been doing that very well, I ask what the next phase is and what ideas it has in that regard.

In respect of Tourism Ireland's marketing spend, what kind of analysis is carried by Tourism Ireland that gives it a good understanding of value for money in terms of the investment it makes based on trends from the various different markets? Does it carry out analysis on that and if so, could Mr. Henry share some of it with us? Is it moving from the more traditional spend towards online? What is the shift there and how does Mr. Henry see that going with all the various opportunities that seem to exist in that online world?