Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I am one of those people who grew up in the tourism business and welcome the opportunity to speak on the issue. I am not going to point out what the Government should do to solve the difficulties because the current difficulties will not be solved by the Government but by ourselves. I grew up in the tourism business and I advise anybody starting out, particularly young people starting in life, that if they get the chance to be born again they should do their best to be born into a family that runs a holiday camp. Living in a family that runs a holiday camp is a smashing way to grow up and a great business experience.

My father opened Red Island holiday camp in Skerries in 1947 when I was, obviously, only a baby. I grew up in a business that was totally different to the business I later became involved in, namely, the grocery business. The business my father built had 250 bedrooms, catered for 500 guests and provided hot and cold water and central heating. The guests arrived from England by boat and plane and were met by buses. They paid for their holiday — travel, accommodation, food and entertainment — on the day they arrived. The deal my father made with them was that they would not need to spend any more money because everything was included in the initial price. Imagine what it is like when one grows up in a business in which the objective of the business is not to sell one's customer something extra, but to ensure the guests come to the owner at the end of the week and say they had a great holiday and will be back again the following year. I put that argument to the young people visiting the House today and to all people in business.

The objective of every business is to get the customer to return and that is in our hands each time we make a decision, particularly in the tourism business. That objective is the real objective of business, but it is where this country has tended to fall down. We have tended to believe that the way to get more business is by advertising and promotion. Those strategies are useful in getting people here for the first time, but the ideal way to get guests or tourists is through word of mouth. We need people who will say they were here, had a great time and will return this year. This does not just apply to Ireland as a whole, but to each county and town.

Some years ago when my family was still young we went to Glenbeigh on holiday. I remember hearing the parish priest there say at mass on Sunday that things were not good at the time, but the way to success for the parish was to make guests welcome. Later that night when we went looking for a babysitter, we got a local babysitter but were told when we wanted to pay that there was no cost because the parish priest had said the people were to make guests welcome. It was very interesting to see the effect of the priest's words on the parishioners, that they should make guests welcome. This is something lacking in Ireland currently. We have fallen away from that attitude and there is a danger that we will point out instead what the Minister and Government should be doing up in Dublin. My concern is that this happens on a regular basis. It regularly happens that when a group of people in any part of the country join together to solve a problem, such as the closure of a factory, the first thing they do is send a delegation to the Department. That is not the way to succeed. We must individually recognise that if we are to solve the problems facing us, we must act individually as families, villages, towns, counties and regions. Last year, room occupancy in the country's 920 hotels fell to 58%, the lowest rate since 1994. The biggest drop was in the number of bed nights sold to American tourists. This figure decreased by 23%, or almost one quarter, by comparison with the previous year. The number of beds sold to British tourists fell by 15% while the number of EU visitors dropped by 7%. Many other businesses throughout the country are losing business also.

There is a danger that we will say we can do nothing about this but that is not correct. I recognise from my business career that even in very tough times there are people who succeed, just as there are those who fail during very good times. It is within our remit as individuals and communities to address the problem. In these times, it is very easy to be pessimistic. Those with longer memories know that the tourism and hospitality sector, as with any other, operates in cycles. I remember Bloody Sunday and the burning of the British Embassy in 1972. There was a huge drop in the number of tourists and nobody came from Britain that year. That was such a long time ago but when we consider what has occurred more recently, we will note that the industry experienced a fall in the number of visitors in 2001 and 2002 following the events of 11 September 2001 and also as a consequence of the economic downturn in the wake of the dotcom disaster in the same period. However, the sector recovered and there was an increase in the number of foreign customers in each of the following five years. We can do something about the current trend but we must not lose confidence and must take action ourselves.

When I was in college in the 1950s, I was involved in the co-operative movement. An Comhar Taisteal was established in this era. It was the co-operative travel organisation based in Gardiner Street in Dublin. It made a deal with CIE and interested parties in west Cork whereby, for £2, CIE would take a family from Dublin to the nearest station in west Cork, where they would stay in a local farmhouse. The local farmer would meet the family at the station, usually with a horse and cart — there were not many cars around in the 1950s — and offer them a holiday in that part of the world. My role in the co-operative movement — I was a teenager at the time — was to present farmers with the opportunity of generating new income by having Dublin families holiday in Cork. This really was exciting. In those days, people did not go away on holidays, except to relatives. In this case, however, our customers, who were from Dublin and certainly did not have relatives in the country, went to west Cork. The greetings and the welcome were remarkable and the initiative was a great success. This is not the kind of tourism we think of today, which involves guesthouses, swanky hotels with big swimming pools and every other facility. It involved living the way of life the city dwellers did not otherwise have a chance to experience. We can do a considerable amount as individuals as well as doing so as communities. I would love to see us do more in this regard.

Let me refer to some other areas. We know the saying that talk is cheap but we need to return to basics and make it easy for people to book hotels and guesthouses. We need to give them what they desire. They need the packaged product to highlight what is on offer. We need to showcase ourselves in the best possible light and educate our customers, not only on what is on offer but on what is available free and of the best possible value.

I was contacted today by the Irish Travel Agents Association, which is urging the Minister to halve the cost of bonding for travel agents. Its letter states:

There will be no cost to the exchequer and no risk to consumers but a genuine prospect of jobs being saved in our industry. Every job saved is also a saving of €20,000 to the exchequer every year.

The association also states:

We believe 2,500 jobs are at risk. [In this regard it states] "we fear these are 'invisible jobs' because they are spread amongst small businesses nationwide not clustered in one town or city. The tragedy is that a simple, cost free, act of red tape reduction could do a lot to save these jobs at no cost to the exchequer.

The association refers to bonding for Irish travel agencies:

Quite apart from recessionary pressures, these jobs are at serious risk due to the fact the industry is regulated by outdated legislation introduced as far back as 1982 [I was not aware of this].

The legislation imposes a burden of regulation that is overseen by the Commission for Aviation Regulation (CAR) and bears little relationship to either the operation or the work practices of today's industry. More importantly, the regulation fails to achieve its primary objective, the protection of the travelling public.

While there are many aspects of the regulation that are not working, the part that is causing most difficulty at industry level is the requirement for Travel Agents to provide financial security by way of a bond equal to 4% of annual turnover. While travel agents have no difficulty providing an appropriate level of financial security to protect our customers, the statistical evidence clearly shows that a maximum 2% of annual turnover is adequate rather than 4% insisted on by CAR. Given today's financial environment, the requirement to provide twice as much bonding as required is driving companies out of business.

I am making the case for the travel agents without full knowledge of the point they are making.

We need to remind people, particularly the Irish, that one does not have to travel abroad to have a really good experience. Ireland has an abundance of attractions to offer. There are great sights to be seen, fabulous beaches, great national parks and golf courses, some of which were mentioned today, and great walking and cycling trails. There are great visitor attractions and cultural and heritage sites. Just last week, The Irish Times produced a lovely book on the walks one can do in various locations around Ireland. It was very interesting to see it.

We will struggle to attract the same number of foreign visitors we attracted in recent years and it is therefore vital that we focus on the domestic market and attract the Irish to holiday at home this coming year. It is not only important for tourism but vital to our economy. Hotels are playing and will play their part in providing some fantastic deals. All one must do is check the daily newspapers or the Internet to obtain evidence of the fantastic deals on offer.

The value of sterling is such that it is very attractive for shoppers to go to the North to shop. It is also making it very difficult for the British to come to Ireland because it has become a lot more expensive. We must really work harder. I am confident that Fáilte Ireland is doing its job of attracting people to the island of Ireland. The real task is to make their experience such that they will come back again. We are helped a great deal by what the Minister and Fáilte Ireland can do but, if we are to succeed, we must realise the matter is in our own hands. If this is the case, we just have to believe in ourselves.