Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Equally, I note from Mr. Gibbons's presentation that while people are travelling, they are making a different choice to go to mainland Europe. I wonder why this is. I see the figures in the Red C survey on Britons' attitudes to travel but we must ask why those who travel are not opting for Ireland? The way Ireland is marketed is very impressive and even being Irish we get a certain pride from the images that come at us about what it means to be Irish. I am not saying this is what it is to be Irish but the whole promotion definitely has a very positive feel about it.

If we are to be ahead of the curve and looking forward into markets and trends, we know that people will not keep doing the same thing all the time and that people get older. Mr. Gibbons can tell me about this more than I can tell him. What do we need to be doing to not be sliding? Mr. Gibbons has identified areas where flags are being raised. What do we need to do?

In the neck of the woods where I am from - they are sick of listening to me talking about it - in the west of Ireland, I believe that the Wild Atlantic Way has been fantastic in that it has shifted focus northwards. Traditionally perhaps it stopped at Galway and went south. There are towns and villages where people with bed and breakfast accommodation rarely had guests but now are at capacity. It has brought a new vibrancy. In terms of the marketing, what more can we do? To me, there is way more potential. Notwithstanding the numbers, we are talking from a very low base. I am excluding on the western seaboard Westport because that was already in formation as being a strong performer in both domestic and international tourism. I am wondering about north of there. Naturally we do not want to sit on our laurels and want to press on. What advice would Tourism Ireland give to community groups, councils and different bodies involved in these areas? They are trying to promote their areas and doing their best at every opportunity. I noted with interest a blog by a North American tourist that was posted widely on Facebook. For some reason, he went off the main track and went north of Galway and ended up in County Mayo and around counties Sligo and Donegal. He was blown away and could not get over how we do not know about it. I know this is an individual with a blog but it reinforces what I am saying, which is that there is an awful lot there. It is wild and it is not very commercialised. What advice would Tourism Ireland give the people there? There are limited resources to market. What is the best way to do it?