Feargal Quinn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is welcome to the House and the concept of The Gathering is very welcome. It is a great initiative and I congratulate the Minister on it. I grew up in the tourist business. My father ran Red Island holiday camp and from the age of ten I looked after British tourists. Senator Mooney spoke about the difficulty in attracting British tourists but we had 500 guests a week coming from England. If there is one message to get across it is my father's message from then, which is to give customers such a good time that they come back again. We call it the boomerang principle. If one does nothing else one should excel and explain to the tourist business in Ireland the boomerang principle, which is that everything we do is to make visitors welcome so they return. It is possible to do this in many ways.

Yesterday, I received a letter from a couple who got married in the 1960s. They bought an old castle in Knocklyon and have spent their entire lives there. They are not wealthy but she was an architect. The lady who wrote the letter stated she contacted me out of concern that the State does not appear to be giving consideration to excluding historic properties from its register of houses liable to the new property tax. The couple believes the preservation of our built heritage should remain a national aim and be encouraged by assisting its custodians where possible, in this case by ameliorating the effect of the property tax. I mention it because I heard Senator Norris also refer to this. It is a question of heritage homes and certainly heritage will bring tourists back to us.

Can we think of new ideas to attract new customers to the airports and at the same time bring tourists to some of the less well-known areas of the country? The Japanese have come up with a radical idea. On the southerly island of Kyushu a group of businessmen, bureaucrats and academics have proposed establishing free flights for people from South Korea, Taiwan and China subsidised by the government. The project proposes launching 35 flights a week between eight airports in Kyushu in ten small jets being developed by Mitsubishi. To qualify, and this is the interesting point, passengers must buy vouchers worth ¤1,000 to shop, eat, sleep or obtain medical treatment in the area. Perhaps it can be viewed as the aviation industry giving away the razor and selling the blades. The idea is to draw visitors to the hinterland directly and not via the main city of Tokyo. If the idea were extended nationwide it would give a purpose to some of the rural airports built there in the past decade. Similar to Irish regional airports, almost all of the large airports operate in the red but several welcomed an extremely low number of passengers. Perhaps concepts such as this could be used here.

The Chinese have been mentioned previously. China is a huge market. I ask the Minister to examine what Harrods in Britain and airports in Europe have done, which is to develop Mandarin speakers. I believe Harrods now has 50 Mandarin speakers and it is claimed they have paid for themselves over and over again. A large number of department stores throughout Europe, particularly in tourist areas, do the same. The Chinese market is already huge but it is capable of being much larger. The Minister is certainly going in the right direction. It is great to see somebody with such enthusiasm and the drive to get something done. The Gathering will be a great success and I wish the Minister well.