Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)

Our motion seeks to build the capacity of the tourism product and to take a more lateral view of its potential to create wealth and jobs and sustaining communities. No longer can we rely solely on the US dollar and the busloads of Americans that graced traditional hotspots like Killarney and Bunratty. We must diversify the product range. The Labour Party motion, under the stewardship of Deputy Upton, seeks to develop Ireland's capacity as an eco-tourism destination.

One of Ireland's natural advantages is the unspoiled 3,500 miles of coastline. It is so indented that one is never more than 80 miles from the sea. Add to this the 800 lakes and rivers. Paddle sports like sea kayaking and river kayaking are, as yet, an untapped potential. While organisations such as the Irish Sea Kayaking Association, ISKA, are active in promoting these sports, the time is right for them to be included in a new consultative process that develops capacity in this area.

We have underestimated the potential for eco-tourism, particularly as a maritime nation. The report of the tourism renewal group recognises the need for domestic marketing. It states:

Domestic demand has a vital role in helping enterprises survive the current international downturn and particularly the current negative impact of the sterling exchange rate on our largest and nearest market. Similar arguments apply to the economic rationale for domestic as to international marketing. Domestic destinations compete directly with overseas destinations for Irish tourists.

We take a more lateral view than that articulated in the review in respect of the marketing target. Ireland always seems to tailor its product towards the UK or North American market. The Labour Party believes that, in order to build the capacity of the tourism product, we must move away from the narrow focus of selling, for example, a weekend by the lakes of Killarney, although there is a market segment for that product. We need to examine minority sports such as kayaking and develop them into segments.

Given our natural environment and easy access to the sea, an eco-tourism product is there to be developed. To assist this process, we must build a stakeholder model that allows groups such as the ISKA, which has led expeditions all over the world, to develop a product to encourage kayakers to visit this country. Such organisations have the necessary contacts, intelligence gathering and viral networks to assist in creating a domestic and international product that will bring people to our shores. I refer to sea-kayaking but we can develop a model for other such niche ecotourism products like surfing, mountaineering and hill-walking. The idea is to bring these people in as part of the stakeholder process.

These people have the necessary contacts on the international stage. I have sea-kayaked and gone mountaineering in other parts of the world. One does this through building up contacts through membership of various organisations. We need to bring these people together as part of a stakeholder group to develop the product domestically and use those contacts in the existing marketing framework to slowly develop the markets we need in order to bring people to our shores. This is taking a more lateral view of building products in niche areas. That is the future for the specific ecotourism product this country has the potential to develop.

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