Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. Fianna Fáil will be supporting the motion.

The Minister must be glad to have an opportunity to discuss a good news item like tourism. It is a rest from his travails with some of the more difficult elements of his brief.

Although we have a lot to be thankful for in tourism, the Minister will know that we cannot for one moment become complacent or relax. This is particularly so in the context of major global changes such as the Trump presidency in America and, more immediately for us, the potential consequences of Brexit on tourism income from the UK and Northern Ireland, which is such an important part of our market, as the Minister will know.

The statistics are good. I am sure the Minister has them to hand. It should be noted that we had over 8 million tourists in 2015. The visitor spend was in excess of €6 billion, which is a growth of 16% on the previous year. All the figures stack up. Of hoteliers, 84% reported an increase in bookings last year, while 82% reported increased profitability and 39% said they had employed more full-time staff than in the previous year. These are all very welcome statistics. I am aware as anybody else of the lies and the damn lies and the statistics but, being from County Kerry, I have seen this myself on the ground . I am in constant contact with people in the hospitality sector, and they are nearly all singing off the same hymn sheet.

People like to hide their light under a bushel sometimes. There is a famous story about a lady who kept a guest house in a prominent tourist town in Kerry. A Bord Fáilte inspector called to her one day to see how her season went. She told him it was a disaster. He found that quite shocking, as Bord Fáilte inspectors had done a few tours during the season and every time they visited the guest house it had a "Full" sign outside the door. The lady agreed that might be true, but said the guest house had turned away far more visitors the previous year. A little anecdote to tell the House that statistics can be hidden at times.

Of guest houses, 68% reported an increase in visitors, as did 57% of the bed and breakfast accommodation operators. The bed and breakfast accommodation sector will have to be looked at, particularly in the context of Airbnb, which I will come to in a moment.

Senator Conway-Walsh addressed developments such as The Gathering and the Wild Atlantic Way, the Ancient East, which have all been very successful. The Gathering was conceived by the outgoing Brian Cowen administration, although it was delivered by the Fine Gael-led Government.

It might be time now for the Minister to publish a new overarching tourism policy document to reassure the industry that we have a strategy in place for dealing with Brexit. UK and Northern Ireland visitors account for 41% of our total overseas visitor numbers, which is colossal. The number of visitors from Britain has increased by 12% since 2012. Everybody in the business knows that the British tourist is one of the most welcome tourists in any corner of this country because they are great spenders and they are very good people to deal with. There is never any problem with British tourists in my neck of the woods. We would hate to see any significant drop in intake there, either in the main season or in the off-season for angling tourism and so on. Hopefully the Minister will be in a position to come in with some specific outline for dealing with Brexit.

The election of President Trump is a worry. He is talking about a wall between America and Mexico. This man is building a wall around America. He will not want anyone coming in, and nor will he want anyone coming out.It is quite likely that that man could impose a tax on people holidaying outside America. He will want them all to go to Palm Springs, Lake Tahoe or somewhere like that. That is also a worry.

In that context, it must be noted that the Tourism Ireland and Bord Fáilte budget was cut by €25 million since 2012. That is 17%, which is quite significant. I would also like to alert the Minister to the great potential in the Asia-Pacific region. This is one of the big growth areas that Fáilte Ireland has identified. It is predicted that it could increase in the order of 6% per annum over the next ten years. The beauty of these tourists is that because they come such a long way, they will stay longer, spend more, and they tend to see more of the country as well. They do not all just come to Dublin and stay there. They move around. That type of tourism is very welcome because, as Senator Kieran O'Donnell as said, we would like to see a tourism boost for smaller villages and local regions. So many of our tourists come to Dublin, skip down to Kilkenny and most of them come on to Kerry after that. Why would they not? Many never see any other part of the country, which brings me on to another concern, which is about the poor spread and regional disparity.

These numbers are off the top of my head. Some 40% of tourists will stay in Dublin. The next best is my own region in the south west which gets 17%. After that, I think the west gets perhaps 13%. There are regions like the midlands and, tragically, the north west, which is one of the most beautiful parts of the country, where it is around 6%. I cannot for the life of my understand that. I know there is a long distance, but Kerry is no farther from Dublin than parts of Donegal, so this disparity is a worry. There is a big treasure out there. If there was a better spread in tourist destinations, it would be better for the economy overall.

I would also like to note the increase in the number of German tourists, especially outside Dublin, in recent years. They are going for the adventure-type holiday, with self-catering and such like. That is something we will try to grow as well.

I have addressed the skills shortage here several times. We are very aware of it in Kerry. We are 6,500 chefs short of a quota. We have very few kitchen training facilities. I was delighted to welcome an initiative, as I am sure the Minister was, by the Gleneagle hotels group with the Institute of Technology, Tralee, to provide new university-level catering hospitality education, leading to a degree. It will be a big boost and it will also be good for the economy of the county.

I support the retention of the 9% VAT rate. I am not going to go into details about it. I think it is a good idea. Airbnb is presenting a problem. It is a welcome development overall, but it is going to have to be regulated in some way sooner or later. I will finish up with a shocking point. Somebody asked me to try to get him a room. It was a twin room for 18 March, the day of the rugby international after St. Patrick's Day. All hotels, bed and breakfast accommodation and guest houses anywhere close to Dublin city are booked. The best I could get him was a room in a house in Summerhill in Dublin. It was €230 for two guys for one night in a twin room in Summerhill, which is not exactly Dublin 4, though I am not casting any aspersions on Summerhill. That is the reality. The hotels are really socking it on significantly when they get the opportunity, which is another day's work.

The best thing about tourism in Ireland is not the statistics but the people, our welcome, Fáilte Ireland and the céad míle fáilte. As long as we have that and our culture, heritage, beauty and beautiful scenery, we have what we need. As the Senator said, anyone who went on the Seanad trail - except perhaps the Minister, who does not do that, and used to canvass from a chaise longuein Dublin 4 or something - has to hit the road and go all over the country, so we know the beauty that is in even the most isolated, unexpected places, and that is really what it is all about.