Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We have to keep coming up with new initiatives because we cannot rest on our laurels. There are many reasons people come to Ireland to visit and the Minister referred to a few of them. Essentially, it comes down to the Irish people and the traditional céad míle fáilte. We like people, we want people and we welcome people and we treat them properly 99% of the time. They get a fair deal and they go home to America, or wherever they came from, with a feeling of having achieved something, whether that is relaxation or a more spiritual thing, which is part of the experience. They see how we live, our music, our dance and our games and we have to support all these things with financial help.

The biggest worry for everybody is the decline in the British tourist spend, which is not dramatic but is a decline nonetheless. British and Northern Ireland tourism accounts for up to 40% of the total tourism spend so it is a huge segment of the market. It is under threat, like everything else, from Brexit and I know the Minister and the Department are well aware of his. The priorities have to be to preserve the common travel area, avoid a hard border and maintain an open aviation regime. Hopefully the British will come to their senses. It has taken a long time to do so but somehow I think the penny is beginning to drop. I hope our Government can manage Brexit to the best advantage of our country and for the advantage of all of Europe, including Britain itself.

The figures are worrying. I do not have the figures for the first quarter of this year but I would be very interested to know the figures for British tourism for that period. I would also like to know the figures for American tourism for the first four months of the year. I suspect the figures are up but I have heard that there is a continuing softening in the British spend in the south west, where I and the Minister of State are from. If it is happening in the south west, it is probably happening in Dublin too, and around the country.

We refer to diversification every year in our speeches on tourism and they are almost single transferable speeches at this stage. The Asian market is huge and even if we get the slightest increase it would be of great significance. Long-haul travellers from the East are good tourists because, having travelled so far, they spend longer here and travel around more to visit more of the country than those who come for a week or less. The data are vague on these travellers, though I know the Department is trying to improve this. A former president of the Irish Hotels Federation famously said that we know more about the travel patterns of the 6.8 million cows on this island than we do of the 6.5 million visitors who come to our shore each year. Information is strength.