John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 65 and 92 together.

The recent publication by the Central Statistics Office of data for tourism and travel in 2005 presented a healthy overall picture for tourism in Ireland. This was evident in both an increased number of overseas visitors, up 6% to almost 7 million, and a significant rise in revenue, up almost 8% to €3.455 billion, excluding carrier receipts. On both counts, we exceeded targets set for 2005.

As global competition intensifies and consumer preferences evolve, these results represent a very robust performance by the sector and confirm just how dynamic and responsive is the Irish tourism sector. Looking at performance by market, the most striking feature last year was the position for mainland Europe where visitor numbers to Ireland were up almost 20%, to 1.9 million, with revenue up 32%, to €1.23 billion. This brings mainland Europe almost on a par with Britain in revenue terms and confirms that we are very much on target in regard to the tourism priority in An Agreed Programme for Government which seeks to broaden our source markets, especially in continental Europe.

From a strategic perspective, mainland Europe represents a very important source market, particularly in terms of regional spread and take up of tourism activities. Increased access from key European markets, especially to the regions, has been a major contributor to this growth and the challenge this year will be to build on this level of success. After a challenging period of intense competition in the British market, Ireland's overall performance in 2005 represents steady progress with growth of 3.8% in overall numbers and revenue showing a marginal increase of 0.3%. There remains a variety of challenges for the industry in Britain, particularly in growing the holiday component of the market. However, it is also true that the burgeoning VFR, visiting friends and relatives, market from Britain has always been and will remain of immense strategic importance to Ireland.

The CSO figures also bear out earlier forecasts in regard to the US and Canada which have proven more difficult to grow at the exceptional rates seen in previous years. Recognising the importance of the North American market to the Irish tourism industry, Tourism Ireland has already initiated an extensive review of its business activities there. The findings from this review will allow it to adjust its marketing programmes locally to help the sector achieve improved results for this year and beyond. I understand that the review is expected to be completed by September.

One fact worth noting about the trend in the North American market is that performance had been exceptionally strong in 2004 and the slippage in 2005 has come from a very high base. So, while there was a slight decrease in the number of visitors from the USA and Canada in 2005, the level was still up by over 5% on 2003. I am confident, therefore, that the underlying trend remains positive and that the review by Tourism Ireland will help to ensure that the outlook remains positive.

The latest data published by the CSO for 2006 cover the month of January. These show a continuation of the positive trend in terms of visitor numbers to Ireland with an 8% increase over the same month last year. While this return is certainly encouraging, the data only cover one off-peak month and it would be unwise to read too much into them. Nevertheless, I see no reason 2006 cannot be another successful year for Irish tourism and that we can achieve our targets of a 5% growth in visitor numbers with an associated increase of 6.7% in revenue earnings.

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