Alan Kelly (Labour)

The Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism should attend the House to discuss tourism policy. We underestimate the value of tourism as a driver of economic growth and I have a number of concerns which need to be addressed in this regard. In particular, a recent analysis has shown that in the first six months of this year the number of visitors from Britain dropped. This is an important statistic as Britain is our most important market. The issue will become more important considering the fiasco in Shannon and the high yield tourism and commercial business which it handles. Business tourism will now be detrimentally affected, particularly as we no longer have a manager in Shannon Airport to help alleviate these problems.

We must also see how the Government can work with agencies in facilitating more visitors to come to the regions. This concerns the role of Dublin Tourism working more closely with other agencies in order to achieve such an outcome. This perennial issue must be addressed. While Dublin Tourism is doing a fine job, its work should be extended in order to disseminate visitors outside the capital.

My other concern relates to driving tourism growth in the regions, which do not have the same international visitor experience. The domestic market has performed excellently for the past ten years, but it must be reaching a peak. Therefore we should examine strategies for extending visitor stays in addition to creating extra ones.

We should examine the possibility of overturning the decision to deregulate the self-catering sector. Like all other sectors, it was approved for a number of years but its deregulation will have a detrimental effect in rural areas where the majority of accommodation is self-catering. Henceforth, the sector will no longer be marketed in the same way as other models of accommodation. The bed and breakfast sector has experienced problems in recent years together with a lack of investment in e-marketing by agencies. In addition, there are inefficiencies due to the number of agencies operating in the sector. We should have a debate on tourism strategies to ensure the future of the sector.