Dáil debates

Thursday, 15 February 2018

Other Questions

Wild Atlantic Way Project

11:50 am

Photo of Hildegarde NaughtonHildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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9. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the details of the Wonders of the Wild Atlantic Way marketing campaign with specific reference to the aim of highlighting ease of direct access from six British gateway cities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7521/18]

Photo of Hildegarde NaughtonHildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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The Minister will appreciate that the broadening of access to and the success of the Wild Atlantic Way is of vital importance to the west of Ireland and in that regard I ask him to give details on the Wonders of the Wild Atlantic Way marketing campaign.

Photo of Brendan GriffinBrendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Naughton for raising this matter and I appreciate her interest in tourism in Galway. I was glad to recently join her and the Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, on a tour of her constituency of Galway West to deal with a number of tourism and sport-related matters.

I thank her for her interest in the Wonders of the Wild Atlantic Way campaign. It is a new €1.8 million initiative to highlight the ease of access to the Wild Atlantic Way from six gateway cities in the UK, namely, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool and London. The six arrival airports along the western seaboard are Cork, Kerry, Shannon, Donegal, City of Derry and Ireland West Airport, Knock. I have been working on this initiative with Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland since assuming office and have made several trips to London to work with Tourism Ireland to develop the campaign. We are pleased to say that the campaign has been launched and is operational and will target 10 million Britons who will be reminded in a very vivid way of how close to them the Wild Atlantic Way is. The selected airports are all within two hours of the Wild Atlantic Way and we are using a number of high visibility outdoor advertising media such as billboards to highlight its proximity to those cities.

We are very keen to reverse the fall in visitor numbers from the UK to Ireland since the Brexit vote in June 2016 and this campaign will produce results. It will also help boost visitor numbers during off-peak times outside the traditional tourist seasons, which is a key challenge for many areas, in particular the peripheral parts of the country. There is a great focus on regionality and seasonality in the initiative and I hope it will produce tangible results for places such as the Galway West constituency and the entire western seaboard.

Photo of Hildegarde NaughtonHildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for his comprehensive reply and for visiting the Connemara greenway, which, he will agree, is a fantastic amenity. It is important that we continue to review these marketing campaigns to ensure we maximise the potential of our amenities along the Wild Atlantic Way.

Photo of Brendan GriffinBrendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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We are partnering with Classic FM in the United Kingdom, which has a listenership of 5 million people who Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland have identified as our key market in the UK and to whom we will intensively market the Wild Atlantic Way for a month. Although there was a decline of 5% in 2017 in visitors to Ireland from the UK , it is very heartening that there was an increase of 0.1% in the final quarter of 2017, which is a step in the right direction. We are very determined not just to recover the numbers from the UK coming here on holiday but also to build back to our natural base. The UK is far too important a tourism market for us to give up on it and we are determined to recover and build on previous visitor numbers. This initiative is a very strong part of that effort and I am confident that we can get back to our rightful place in the UK market.

Photo of Eugene MurphyEugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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I will allow Deputy Barry to ask his next question and will permit one response from the Minister.

Photo of Mick BarryMick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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I will then be able to respond to the Minister.

Photo of Eugene MurphyEugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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We will decide on that depending on the time remaining. I am giving Deputy Barry the opportunity to ask his question.

Photo of Mick BarryMick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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In order to facilitate that-----

Photo of Kevin O'KeeffeKevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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The Acting Chairman is back-tracking.

Photo of Eugene MurphyEugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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I am not.

Photo of Kevin O'KeeffeKevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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Question No. 10 is part of a grouping that was already dealt with.

Photo of Eugene MurphyEugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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No, it was not.

Photo of Kevin O'KeeffeKevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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The Acting Chairman already dealt with it.

Photo of Eugene MurphyEugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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I did not. The groupings are listed here. Deputy O'Keeffe is incorrect.