John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)

The super regions initiative, which was launched by Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland in February, is the latest and, incidentally, possibly the most significant innovation from an overseas marketing perspective in presenting a better, more tangible concept of Ireland's regions to potential consumers abroad. The initiative, which is additional to Tourism Ireland's destination marketing campaigns and Fáilte Ireland's regional allocations and activities, is based on new strategic marketing alliances between adjoining tourism regions, positioning them to exploit international market opportunities more fully so that for marketing purposes, the initiative combines existing RTA regions in the three super regions — Ireland South, Ireland West and Ireland East. The idea is to present Ireland's regions more coherently to overseas consumers. It is not about creating any new structures at a regional level and will not impact on the restructuring of the regional tourism authorities.

We found that there was a substantial increase in the number of visitors coming into the major urban centres, for example. For instance, in 2005 the visitor numbers in Dublin increased by 11% and the outer regions did not do as well, with the numbers in some increasing marginally, in some increasing by a little more, in some remaining stagnant and in even one or two showing a slight decline.

We now seek to market the super regions by emphasising not just the urban attractions but also the rural attractions contiguous to them. By moving in this direction, we will benefit the rural regions as well as seeing continued growth in the urban areas.

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