Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Carey. My Department's role on tourism lies in the area of national tourism policy while the tourism agencies have operational responsibility for the implementation of this policy.

The United States continues to be one of Ireland's strongest performing markets, delivering visitors who stay longer and spend more than average. In the period since 2010, visitor numbers from the United States have more than doubled. For 2018, Tourism Ireland already has a busy programme of targeted promotional activity under way in North America. In addition, Tourism Ireland recently undertook a market review of the US which I was happy to launch in January. The new strategy is the result of a comprehensive review and is designed to build on recent record levels of visitor growth, and identify the key opportunities and challenges ahead. As part of the review, new research was undertaken to deepen and enrich the understanding of the journey prospective US visitors take when choosing their holiday - either on the island of Ireland or competing destinations - and to help to map their "path to purchase". This analysis has generated new insights that informed the business plans of the tourism agencies for 2018 and will receive further input in future years.

The strategy presents an overview of seven key strategic imperatives that need focus, resource and action in order to deliver upon future ambition and growth targets. The majority of recommendations outlined in the strategy are aimed at the coming four-year period. However, given the need to ensure the development of new products and experiences that meet the interests of the US traveller, the broader strategy has been developed with an eight-year horizon to 2025 to allow for longer-term planning and capital investments to be made.

I have one piece of very good news on which we can all reflect. Since 2010, the number of visitors from the US to Ireland has increased from just over 800,000 to 1.8 million, meaning that we have seen an extra 1 million visitors from the US to Ireland over that seven-year period. It is a remarkable improvement in US visitor numbers. As I mentioned earlier, they are high-spend and long-stay visitors. That tourism market is very lucrative. We want to increase it further and build on that success.

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