Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to address the Seanad to speak about tourism. It is a vital industry in Ireland, one that is perhaps unique in that it reaches every part of the country. It is a sector that has, without doubt, made a very important economic contribution in recent years. I am sure that every Member of the House would concur with me on this point.

The year 2017 was another record-breaking year for overseas visits to Ireland and marked seven years of consecutive growth in overseas visitor numbers. This is a fantastic achievement given that 2016 was an exceptional year in its own right and particularly in view of the fall in visitor numbers from our largest market, Great Britain, which I will come back to later.

Overall in 2017, according to CSO data, there were over 9.9 million overseas visitors to Ireland, up 4% on 2016. They generated approximately €4.9 billion for our economy, up 6.5%. This figure rises to €6.5 billion if we include the fare receipts of Irish airlines and ferry companies. Domestic tourism was worth €1.9 billion in 2017, meaning the sector was worth approximately €8.4 billion to the economy in current expenditure alone in 2017. Fáilte Ireland estimates that the tourism and hospitality sector now supports about 235,000 jobs across the economy, or approximately one in ten jobs. We can sometimes think that numbers such as these are mere statistics but these are 235,000 individuals, households and families, with hopes and aspirations for the future and for whom their job is critically important. It is a huge achievement and I see no reason we cannot grow the figure even more in the future.

Initial data for 2018 indicate that we are continuing to grow our visitor numbers, with Europe and North America again performing strongly. The continued growth in visitor numbers reflects the ongoing efforts of the tourism agencies, in collaboration with the industry, to market Ireland at a range of markets with the highest revenue growth potential. Tourism Ireland focuses investment on the basis of market potential and continues to implement its market diversification strategy. Market diversification is a major factor contributing to our outstanding performance in 2017 as it targets markets proven to stay longer and spend more. The contribution of North American visitors in 2017 was over €1.5 billion, making it the second largest market for revenue behind mainland Europe. Remarkably, revenue from this vital market has more than doubled in the last five years, which has produced a lot of money for the Exchequer.

With the launch of the Global Ireland strategy by the Taoiseach earlier this week, we can look forward to continuing to grow tourism from a wide variety of markets. Why do tourists come to Ireland? Research by Fáilte Ireland consistently shows that our people and our scenery and environment are the biggest draws for visitors to this country. That does not mean we can sit back and expect people to come because of those natural advantages. We operate in a very competitive international marketplace in tourism and the tourism agencies, Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland, do a great job both in marketing Ireland abroad and ensuring we are equipped to provide the type of experiences people want when they get here.

The brand experiences have turned into a real success story with the Wild Atlantic Way and Ireland’s Ancient East benefitting from growing international awareness. Dublin, as we know, is an iconic destination which attracts large numbers of visitors to experience city living side by side with the natural outdoors. Fáilte Ireland has further developed the approach this year with the launch of a new brand for the midlands, Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands, which I have no doubt will be a success in its own right. To help get the message out there, we invested an additional €2 million in Tourism Ireland this year for investment in its digital tourism marketing, both to help restore Ireland’s share of voice vis-à-visits competitors in the British market and also to develop growth from alternative markets.

The Government, through Fáilte Ireland, continues to support the expansion of the tourism experience on the ground in line with the relevant experience brands.Priority areas for tourism capital investment include the development and enhancement of tourist attractions and activities to provide the type and quality of experience that our visitors are seeking. Fáilte Ireland operates both large and small scale capital grant schemes. It also has strategic partnerships with bodies such as the Office of Public Works, the National Parks and Wildlife Service and Coillte to further develop our tourism assets. In addition, the agency invests directly in architecture, such as signage, for the brand experiences. Current investment in tourism provides for further enhancement, animation and promotion, allowing Fáilte Ireland to fund festivals, events and other programmes and to provide related business supports and training.

The forthcoming publication of a strategy for the future development of greenways will set out a framework by which we can develop more of these wonderful attractions around the country. I have seen at first hand how greenways can provide a boost to tourism in an area and I look forward to a time when we have a network of these facilities traversing the country. Last month, I had the great pleasure of doing the Waterford greenway with Senator Paudie Coffey, who was here a few moments ago. We were there on a Tuesday morning in early May. Seeing the level of economic activity in a rural area between Kilmacthomas and Dungarvan was remarkable. I remember writing a blog after finishing the Westport to Achill greenway in 2013, while sitting in the hotel on Achill Island. I wrote it under the heading, "Why Greenways should be called Goldways", because of the sheer level of economic activity that was taking place along the route of that greenway. I had visited three years earlier when it was a fledgling greenway and businesses were starting to get off the ground between Newport and Mulranny. Within three years, it had grown to be a great success and it has grown even further since. Greenways offer a great opportunity for the entire country and we need to grasp it.

As I mentioned, people are one of the reasons visitors come here. Having appropriately trained staff is extremely important for our tourism enterprises. For its part, Fáilte Ireland provides complementary tourism-related business development and training supports in line with its responsibility for encouraging, promoting and supporting tourism as a leading indigenous component of the economy. Furthermore, in line with the Tourism Action Plan 2016-2018, it is committed to working with the tourism industry and the wider education and training sector to implement recommendations contained in the report on future skills requirements in the hospitality sector. In this regard, Fáilte Ireland participates in the hospitality skills oversight group, which oversees skills development and promotion in the sector, including monitoring the implementation of the expert group recommendations.

Despite the strong performance and success that I have outlined, we cannot be complacent about the future success of tourism. We are, as Senators know, heavily dependent on attracting tourism from outside Ireland. Anything that causes economic upheaval in our main source markets can have a detrimental effect on the industry here. I remember the outbreak of foot and mouth disease in 2001 and the severe impact it had on the tourism industry. I was working in Aghadoe Heights Hotel in Killarney as a porter on the morning of the attacks of 11 September 2001. The plan was to try to earn a few extra pounds - I think it was still pounds at the time - before going back to college two weeks later. I was back in college two days later because, effectively, the tourism season ended that morning. We need to be robust enough to deal with these shock events that happen, such as volcanic ash clouds.

One issue that has been on the horizon for the last two years is Brexit. The UK vote to leave the European Union caused considerable concern for the sector here. Brexit has yet to fully play out and its longer-term effects on tourism are difficult to gauge at this point without knowing what the final terms of the agreement will be. We know the initial effect was a 5% reduction in British visitors in 2017 as sterling weakened against the euro. Monitoring and responding to this is something that I have been closely involved in with Tourism Ireland, Fáilte Ireland and the tourism industry. We have put in place a number of measures to help counteract these initial effects, including the Wonders of the Wild Atlantic Way marketing programme earlier this year. I am pleased that visitor numbers from the UK have stabilised this year to date although we only have four months of data at this point. While we have not returned to the figures recorded before the Brexit vote, the figures have stabilised and have risen slightly this year. The good news is that UK visitor numbers are no longer in decline and have turned a corner. The pre-Brexit figure should be our natural benchmark and the point to which we will fight to return. The British market is so important that we cannot afford to give up on it. It is a critical market for us. The proximity of the British market presents major opportunities but we need to fight hard for it.

Events such as Brexit highlight the importance of market diversification. The greater the variety of source markets that we have, the more resilient we will be in times of difficulty. We cannot be sure what the next economic or political shock will be but we can be ready by being adaptable enough to turn to newer markets where that is necessary. It is in everyone's interest that the tourism industry continues to grow. However, we must be conscious of the need to grow it in a sustainable way. This is an important part of the Government's tourism policy. This policy is implemented through tourism action plans, which are monitored by a tourism leadership group that includes industry representatives. The current tourism action plan covers the period from 2016 to 2018, and the tourism leadership group has concluded that most of the 23 actions are complete or nearly complete. Work is currently under way on drafting the next tourism action plan for the period from 2018 to 2020 and a number of workshops are being held to progress this.

The need to grow sustainably will be an overriding theme of the next action plan. Across the world, there is growing recognition that tourism needs to be sustainable. It needs to be environmentally sustainable and also economically and socially sustainable. We have seen to our cost in this country that growth for the sake of growth is not always desirable. We must also remain conscious of the need to maintain our competitiveness. Ireland is a location that offers a great visitor experience and value for money. It would be a shame if increased demand for tourism-related services resulted in price inflation of a level which would see us losing that reputation again. It has happened before, as we all know, and we know the complete devastation that resulted from that previously. We need to avoid that at all costs in the future because jobs will be lost if that happens. That needs to be one of our key focuses.

Overall, we are in a very good place with tourism. The growth in recent years has been impressive and a major contributor to our ongoing recovery from the difficult times we experienced in the last decade. I am confident that, with the ongoing support of Government, we will continue to grow in a smart way that will mean that tourism reinforces itself as arguably our most important indigenous economic sector. The key issue is collaboration between Government, agencies, industry, the people working at the front line and local communities, with tourism that is built from the ground up, that is, from community level. It was viewed as the role of the State to provide tourism and everything related to it for too long. All over the country, I have seen the remarkable work led by people of individual communities. If we are to expand regionality and seasonality, we need to empower local communities to sell their communities and locations and the great stories and heritage they have. All parts of this island have fantastic heritage and each part has a great story to tell. The process of spreading regionality needs to be a key Government policy and one that empowers local communities throughout the island of Ireland. If we can do that, we will provide our future generations with an opportunity that many generations in the past did not have, namely, to stay in the part of the island that they love and in which they want to grow up, grow old and live their lives. Tourism, with other industries, gives us a great opportunity to achieve that and that is a goal worth fighting for.