John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am replying to this topical issue on behalf of the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, who unfortunately cannot be in the Chamber this evening.

In so far as this issue relates to advertising by Tourism Ireland, the matter raised is purely operational for the agency concerned. The Minister has no role in day to day matters such as the content or design of advertising by either Tourism Ireland or indeed the tourism industry.

Tourism Ireland is the all-island tourism marketing company established under the Good Friday Agreement by the then Bord Fáilte and the Northern Ireland Tourist Board. Its memorandum and articles of association govern its operations and it is accountable to its board and, at policy level, to the North-South Ministerial Council established under the Good Friday Agreement. The company has responsibility for all-Ireland destination marketing, the tourism brand Ireland, the delivery of regional and product marketing and promotion activity on behalf of Fáilte Ireland and the NITB, and the overseas office network. It receives funding both from my Department and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment in Northern Ireland.

As a North-South body, Tourism Ireland operates under a business plan which is approved by the North-South Ministerial Council. Day to day decisions are made within the context of that business plan. While an annual business plan is agreed by the NSMC, the plan simply gives a broad overview of strategy and targets for the year. Ministers have no role in terms of deciding the details for material used in the overall promotion of the island. Not only would it be impractical to have such a hands-on role, it would also be highly inappropriate to have involvement in such decision making. I do not claim to have any expertise in the business of advertising and marketing but it is my job to protect the interests of the taxpayer by ensuring that such material is what is most effective in driving business, rather than what is reflective of local interests.

With regard to the specific issue raised by the Deputy, I am informed that Tourism Ireland does promote the midlands as part of its extensive global destination marketing programme in the US and in other key markets overseas. In this regard, some recent activity in the US has included in April Tourism Ireland targeting 2 million potential US visitors in key gateway cities with a promotion on the lakelands region, which included a video on President Obama's visit to Moneygall. Tourism Ireland also invites key US media and trade contacts to visit Ireland and the midlands region to experience at first-hand the wealth of things to see and do here for American holidaymakers. In September, representatives of top-producing American travel companies visited Ireland to attend a workshop with over 120 tourism providers, including many representatives of the midlands region. Their itinerary while here included a visit to Clonmacnoise in County Offaly and Castle Durrow in County Laois.

More generally, it is important to note that Tourism Ireland's current advertising campaigns in the United States, Jump into Ireland and The Gathering Ireland 2013, are not geographically specific but feature aspects of Irish tourism products, activities and attractions which research has shown appeal to US visitors.

In a long-haul and large market such as the US, it is clearly Ireland that is to be promoted as a destination and attempting to promote smaller regions on a stand-alone basis would be counter-productive. It should also be noted that US visitors to Ireland are very region-friendly and visit several areas, including the midlands and particularly on CIE tours, during their visits which, on average, last for approximately nine days.

In terms of future priorities, obviously our main focus will be on The Gathering Ireland 2013. The event will be the biggest tourism initiative ever staged in Ireland and will consist of a year-long programme of festivals, events and other gatherings in every region of the country. The aim is to bring an additional 325,000 overseas visitors to Ireland. The Gathering 2013 is targeted at people living abroad with a connection to Ireland, whether through birth, ancestry, family connections, friendships, business, education or personal interest as well as at those who simply are curious about Ireland. Tourism Ireland is actively promoting The Gathering in our main overseas markets and I am aware that the midlands region has a number of planned gatherings next year which will be included.

Obviously the US market generally remains critical to Irish tourism. Visitors from this market continue to stay longer and spend more than the average overseas visitor to Ireland. Fortunately, we have performed strongly in terms of visits from North America recently. Last year alone we had more than 1 million visits from North America which was an increase of 8.1% on 2010 while figures for the first nine months of this year show a further slight increase of 0.6 % compared with the corresponding period in 2011. Tourism Ireland recently undertook a wide-ranging review of the market and it has set the ambitious target of achieving further growth of over 20% in visits from the US by the end of 2015. I have no doubt that all areas of Ireland, including the midlands, will benefit from such growth. I am quite certain Deputy Troy will be welcoming all these US visitors to the midlands. I look forward to continuing close co-operation between the tourism agencies and all tourism stakeholders to ensure these ambitious targets are met, which no doubt they will.

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