Seanad debates
Wednesday, 19 November 2003
Report of Tourism Policy Review Group: Statements.
We must realise that tourism is multifaceted. Every tourist to this country does not travel independently. One must take account of the package holidays, where coaches bring in 50 to 55 people. These tours are predestined – I will not go into a new theological area of predestination – but they are not necessarily categorised as having a specialised interest. There are also individual tourists, who often have a greater pre-awareness of what to expect when they visit, and Irish people who return here. All those visitors are part of the tourism statistics. I do not say this in any derogatory sense, but we should not let whiz-kids get a grip on the industry and say we must focus on a particular area without taking account of the breakdown of tourists into those categories.
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