Seanad debates
Wednesday, 13 November 2002
Tourism Industry: Statements (Resumed).
Although I was not here earlier, I listened on the monitor to a number of Senators who paid particular attention to the difficulties on the transatlantic route. There is a continuing downturn in the North American economy and in the business interests between our two countries and that obviously has a knock-on effect on tourism. There is an important area of tourism which is often not recognised, that is, the business-tourism sector; these are the visitors who come here to do business and then stay on for two to three days or bring members of their family with them. Often that tourism is not necessarily seen as part of the package holiday or bus tour sectors, but the fact that there is not the same level of business travel between our two countries has certainly contributed to the drop in numbers.
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