Mr. Niall Gibbons:

A few issues overlap and I shall try to address all of them.

I have just come back from the World Travel Market and 70 companies travelled from here in preparation for the 2017 season. As many as 180 countries competed against us. In attendance were 50,000 tourism professionals and 3,000 international media so it was a large showcase. One of the most interesting presentations we received was from the United Nations World Tourism Organization. It pointed out that in the first nine months of this year the number of tourist trips around the world had reached 1 billion in nine months, which is up on last year. Interestingly, the number of trips to Europe has increased by 2%. Central European countries like France, Turkey and Belgium have been decimated by the tragic events that have happened over the past 12 months. The big winners in Europe this year have been Spain, Portugal and Ireland. All of this has led to a situation, over the past number of years, where we have talked about market diversification. We embarked on market diversification as part of our strategy for 2014-16. That meant spending a smaller amount of money but a bigger proportion of a smaller spend in North America and mainland Europe. It brought us to a situation where at the end of last year, the tourist spend from Britain last year was up 9% to under €1.4 billion to the island of Ireland; the USA's spend last year was up 27% to just short of €1.3 billion; and mainland Europe was up 20% to €1.7 billion. In the past number of years we have identified a series of countries where we have the capacity to grow real holiday revenue. I refer to countries like Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Benelux and the Nordic countries. The initiative has paid dividends for us. The spend by European tourism now to the island of Ireland is well in excess of the tourism spend by British visitors. This year it is possible that the spend by people from North America may pip Britain at the post at the end of the year but that remains to be confirmed. For the past three years we have undertaken the diversification strategy and we will continue it for the next number of years.

Approximately 30% of our funding comes from the Northern Ireland Executive and directly from Stormont and 70% comes from the Irish Government. We have a board comprised of six members from each jurisdiction who approve our business plan. We are finalising the business plan at the moment.

We shall face a number of challenges in the next three years. We do not have full clarity on our funding because the Stormont Administration works on a different fiscal year. We have the practicalities of the fallout from Brexit. This is because we get a surplus amount of sterling from Northern Ireland - we do not need to use it all in the UK - and because of the collapse of sterling versus the dollar, we already are down €1 million in our marketing spend next year because of sterling currency movements since Brexit.

In respect of the Brexit plan, I want to distinguish between a marketing plan and what has happened arising from Brexit. There are economic situations that have arisen from Brexit over which we have no control. Such economic uncertainty gives rise to consumer uncertainty and casts doubt on whether people will travel next year. Oxford Economics advises us on these matters. It has told us that the British this year will take about 65 million trips abroad and it is likely to be 2.5% less next year. Also, the island of Ireland is more exposed because we depend more on the British market than other European markets. It is entirely possible that we may see a reduction in the number of British tourists visiting here next year.As sterling has moved by between 18% and 20%, it makes the eurozone as a whole more competitive and, thus, poses pricing challenges for 2017.

There are other factors. I do not know how the Brexit ball will bounce. I do not know what direction factors such as the common travel area and visas will take until after Article 50 is triggered and negotiations take place. These factors will not influence whether people visit here. The real factors are how easily people can get here. Every week during the summer months people can avail of 237,000 airline seats provided by eight airlines to fly to Ireland and there are 50,000 car spaces on the ferries. We will continue to promote how easily people can travel here. We will also continue to promote shoulder season festivals and events.

Members have asked what will happen post-Brexit and I shall give an example. The actor, Richard E. Grant, visited here in the autumn because Tourism Ireland is using him in a campaign to highlight Ireland to 5.5 million culturally curious customers who listen to Smooth Radio. Recently the Lonely Planet travel organisation announced that the Skellig Ring is its destination of choice for 2017. That aspect was well on show at the World Travel Market over the past three days. We have targeted the 1.9 million readers of The Daily Telegraphover the past number of weekends as they are right in our target market. This week, Dublin features on the front page of Time Outmagazine, which is timely coverage as it coincided with the World Travel Market.

In terms of online coverage, Tourism Ireland is the third largest tourism agency in the world on Facebook with 3.6 million fans and we are second largest in the world on Twitter and YouTube. This allows us to pump out messages all through the year, both nationally and regionally, on what is on and what there is to see and do. Such work continues. An awful lot of good and positive activity is taking place and I do not want it to be overshadowed by the Brexit debate. We will have to see how the debate pans out. For the consumers choosing where to holiday next year, it still will be easy to get here. We must make sure that we offer them good value for money and we must continue to invest in the marketplace.

We are concerned about our share of voice, which has been in decline in all of our main markets over the past four years due to lower levels of investment. Ireland's ranking as a destination choice has been in decline for the past five years because of reduced investment in the marketplace. That is a concern for us but we will continue to make the case for additional funding.

A clarification was sought on the visa scheme. Two visa schemes are in operation that were launched in the past number of years. First, the UK short-stay visa waiver programme allows visitors from approximately 15 Asian countries who enter the UK and clear immigration to travel to Ireland with no additional visa requirement. The initiative has been extended to 2021, which is terrific news for us in marketing Ireland abroad.

Second, the British-Irish visa scheme has operated in China and India for the past two years. The scheme is being review by the Departments of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Justice and Equality and we are liaising with them. The sooner we can get clarity on the future of the scheme the better because it has given us a great platform, along with our colleagues in the UK, in markets like China and India. Let us bear in mind that we compete with the Schengen zone that is comprised of over 25 countries and provides visa and passport-free travel arrangements between all of those countries. Ireland and the UK are out on their own competing against mainland Europe in the largest outbound travel market in the world. As many as 130 million Chinese people will travel abroad this year with perhaps only 50,000 of them travelling to Ireland.

On the point as to why we were not doing this work before, I can confirm we have been doing it for the past 15 years.

The bottom line is that Ireland does not have a brand presence in all of these markets. We work very closely with agencies such as IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and Bord Bia and Departments such as the Departments of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Justice and Equality. We work as a member of Team Ireland. We are in competition with other large-scale destinations such as the United States. Brand USA was launched in recent years and ten year visas are now offered in China. Japan also offers ten year visas in China, whereas we tend to offer single entry visas for a period of between three months and two years. One has to look at the competition. We need a marketing strategy to ensure our enterprises are "China ready" in terms of the language, its food and customs. There are people who are doing really good work in that regard, including in the Guinness Storehouse and Trinity College Dublin. We must be serious about our level of investment in these countries against that of our competitors.

I will touch on the regions, but I acknowledge our colleagues in Fáilte Ireland will have much to say about them also. There has been a great deal more activity in the tourism sector in the regions in recent years. Initiatives such as the Wild Atlantic Way and Ireland's Ancient East have given us critical mass in the international marketplace, but it is very difficult to cut through with small-scale messages. One needs projects of international size and scale. New festivals and events such as the Bram Stoker Festival and the New Year's Eve celebrations, anything that is off peak, have been really good for us. As we are very keen to collaborate with airlines that drive access to the regions, we have conducted many campaigns with Kerry, Shannon, Knock and Waterford airports which provide access from point to point regions in Great Britain.

We have seen a significant level of activity in European markets, in which we are using a large proportion of our reduced budget. We have completed market reviews of all our main markets in Europe, in conjunction with our colleagues in Fáilte Ireland, Tourism Northern Ireland and the industry. We have completed market reviews in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Benelux countries, as well as the Nordic countries, in which markets we have seen spectacular growth. Ten years ago visitor numbers from Germany were about 300,000; this year they well exceed 600,000, although it has to be said our market share is less than 1%. There is great potential to drive regional holiday business, as these visitors stay in hotels and will hire cars. Last year 3 million Europeans visited the island of Ireland, an increase of 16%.

Airbnb has provided a safety valve in Dublin where there has been congestion, with price and availability being the biggest risks in satisfying future demand. It is a small component of the overall tourism mix.

We have liaised with the Office of Public Works and Fáilte Ireland. I am sure my colleagues will comment further on the OPW, but we are seeking to exploit what we call secondary sites, places such as Skellig Michael which can only take 180 people a day. However, there are great opportunities at other OPW sites around the country. We recently had a meeting with it to discuss the matter.

On the events of last night, the economy will be the most significant determinant in terms of how many people will travel to Ireland next year. We will keep that matter under review. We have a central marketing partnership group. In respect of events that affect the industry from an economic perspective, we work very closely with the industry and can adjust and adapt marketing programmes. We have learned a great deal from what has happened in the past ten years and are adaptable and flexible on the marketing side.

We are still confident that we can achieve growth next year. The level growth forecast in 2017 by tourism economists has been halved in the past seven months, arising from the economic turmoil. We will, however, continue to keep that matter under review and will still have a very strong marketing programme. We have a sales force. About 14 companies are travelling to the west coast of the United States later this week, while a sales mission will leave for Australia and New Zealand. There is really good engagement by the industry in pushing all of the good reasons people should come to Ireland. A positive is that we are likely to see at least a 10% increase next year in air capacity from North America, with expansion from both the United States and Canada. Etihad Airways has announced a twice daily year round service to Dublin and we are also likely to see a small increase in air capacity from mainland Europe. While there are uncertainties, there are also many positives which we will continue to accentuate throughout 2017.