John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)

The importance of tourism as an instrument of national and regional development has been recognised by the Government for a long time. The need to achieve as wide as possible a distribution of visitor numbers throughout the regions, with an associated spread of tourism revenue, is similarly recognised as a major objective and challenge in tourism policy. Various factors have conspired to exacerbate regional growth problems in recent years. The increasing international trend towards shorter and more frequent breaks favours urban destinations because they are more easily accessible. That has driven significantly the more robust growth in Dublin and the eastern region.

At a time of overall national tourism growth, the need to spread the growth across all regions should be addressed proactively and energetically. The programmes and initiatives operated by the State tourism agencies and the action plan set out in the tourism policy review group's report reflect that objective fully. I would like to highlight some of the many actions proposed by the tourism policy review group that will have a positive impact on the regional distribution of tourism numbers and revenue. I refer, for example, to those actions relating to product development, tourism promotion, transport access and appropriate infrastructure and the arrangements for the delivery of tourism policy at regional level.

The lack of high-quality direct access has been a major impediment to growth in certain regions, particularly the western seaboard and the north west, and from certain key source markets such as the United States. Recent developments, including Ryanair's announcement of its plans to develop Shannon Airport as a European hub, American Airlines' announcement of new services from Boston and Chicago and Continental Airlines' plans for a new direct service to Belfast, provide a welcome boost to the regions at the start of the 2005 season. Such developments build on the significant expansion by Aer Lingus of its route network since 2001. Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland, which have been active in their pursuit of access improvements, will help to promote the routes to optimise their inbound tourism potential.

Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland will adopt some innovative approaches which should heighten the regional impact of Ireland's marketing activities, nationally and overseas, in 2005. All regions will feature prominently in the full range of marketing activities. A dedicated marketing fund for tactical co-operative initiatives by the regional tourism authorities and their members will be established. A region-to-region approach will be adopted in Britain to capitalise on the direct access links to the regions. Specific campaigns promoting the western seaboard will be mounted in North America. An approach of sponsoring regions will be adopted in Europe with each market office focusing attention alternately on particular Irish regions to enhance the awareness of the local trade of what each region has to offer. An enhanced consumer website, which will have increased functionality and a strong regional input, will provide for dynamic and up-to-the minute packages to entice domestic travellers. A strong focus on event-based holidays will be complemented by a festivals and cultural events fund that will be more streamlined and targeted and will continue to favour less developed regions.

The House is aware that I have no direct responsibility for individual actions or measures relating to tourism promotion or development in so far as specific areas of the country are concerned. Such actions or measures are day-to-day functions of the tourism agencies.

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