Seanad debates
Wednesday, 13 November 2002
Tourism Industry: Statements (Resumed).
Other relevant factors are the perceived value of a holiday in Ireland, especially in comparison to our competition, and the increased marketing spend to our competitor destinations, for example, the vast amount of money that the British Government has pumped into its "Visit Britain" campaign in comparison to our marketing spend and of course the effectiveness of that spend. I compliment the Minister for the remedial action he took on being appointed Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism. Earlier he spoke about this in terms of the provision of €3 million for front-line marketing. That is hugely important but there is a need to go a little deeper in terms not only of the allocation of funding but of how that money is spent. He pointed out in his address that the money was spent in areas from where we had the best chance of getting tourists. He also pointed out that he had not necessarily targeted the North American market during the summer months because we had reached an effective capacity in that area but that there is a need to look at areas of the American market in the autumn period and then at other times to target some of our nearest neighbours, both in Britain and in the other parts of Europe. That is an area which is often under-utilised.
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