Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to address the Seanad on sustainable tourism. The importance of tourism cannot be overstated. It is one of the largest and fastest growing sectors in the global economy and makes a significant economic and social contribution to many countries, cities and regions. Tourism has become a vital industry that benefits every part of this country. Maintaining our recent success, while at the same time mitigating negative impacts on the environment, on our communities and on the long-term viability of the industry itself is the ultimate goal of sustainable tourism.

The tourism sector has experienced steady growth for the past eight years, culminating in overseas visitor expenditure of more than €5 billion in 2018. Overall, the sector was worth almost €9.4 billion to the economy in 2018 if domestic tourism receipts and the fare receipts of Irish air and sea carriers are included. Fáilte Ireland estimates that for every euro spent on tourism, domestic and overseas, 23 cent is generated in tax, thus highlighting the importance of tourism as a business sector for the economy.

Fáilte Ireland also estimates that tourism now supports the employment of in excess of 260,000 people in our economy - more than 11% of total employment. It is a significant employer and particularly important in those communities that rely heavily on tourism revenue and jobs.

As Senators may be aware, the tourism sector continued to perform at a high level in the first half of 2019, even though it had not maintained the growth levels of previous years. While this performance is a fantastic achievement by all involved in the sector, we must be open to change. We must be adaptive and resilient to maintain this progress. Both public bodies and private enterprises must continue to ensure that social, economic and environmental sustainability is central to our tourism offering to maximise the future competitiveness of Ireland as a visitor destination. It has never been more important to base the safeguarding and successful growth of the tourism sector on a sustainable and balanced approach. Environmental protection, economic competitiveness, community and visitor awareness and involvement all play a part in successfully achieving and benefiting from this approach.

Internationally, tourism is an expanding sector, with rapidly developing economies such as China and India driving global tourism growth. The rise of globalisation and technological advances in recent years have led to cheaper air fares and more accessibility, allowing people to make their own travel arrangements, with travellers increasingly sharing their own experiences through social media. Tourism is becoming one of the largest and fastest-growing sectors in the world economy. The World Travel and Tourism Council estimates that tourism generated more than 122 million jobs globally in 2018. At the same time, there is growing recognition that tourism growth must be sustainable. In 2015, the United Nations, UN, published 17 sustainable development goals that address the global challenges we face as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The UN's sustainable development goals call on countries to develop and implement policies to promote sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products.

Ireland's national implementation plan sets out how the State intends to implement these goals through the development of actions and targets around each goal. It is incumbent on all Government agencies and Departments to ensure these actions and targets are adhered to and that each sector contributes to Ireland's realisation of the goals. The Government's tourism policy statement, People, Place and Policy: Growing Tourism to 2025, commits to placing tourism as a key element in its economic strategy, with development in the tourism sector reflecting the highest standards of environmental and economic sustainability. This policy is implemented by way of a series of tourism action plans, which are developed and monitored by the tourism leadership group appointed by the Government. In December 2018, along with the Minister, Deputy Ross, I launched a tourism action plan for 2019 to 2021 that identifies the key actions to be progressed during this period to maintain sustainable growth in overseas tourism revenue and employment.

One of the first actions identified in the new action plan provided for the establishment of a working group to review international policy and best practice in sustainable tourism and propose guiding principles for sustainable tourism development in Ireland. This working group is chaired by my Department and includes representatives from the industry and the tourism agencies. Its work will be informed by the overarching policy and strategy identified in the Government's framework for sustainable development for Ireland, Our Sustainable Future, and the Sustainable Development Goals National Implementation Plan 2018-2020. The work of the sustainable tourism working group help us to achieve the tourism-related targets in the sustainable development goals.

As tourism continues to expand and diversify, it is important to assess and recalibrate our long-term targets to ensure they remain robust in terms of the ever-changing tourism environment. In 2018, following several years of strong growth in the sector, the Government's tourism targets were reached ahead of schedule. In July this year, the Minister and I agreed to adopt revised tourism targets out to 2025. These targets have an increased focus on revenue generated by overseas visitors ahead of overseas visitor numbers to support a more sustainable approach.

Part of the answer in respect of making tourism socially and economically sustainable is to ensure a greater spread of tourists and, in addition, increase the proportion of tourists who visit outside the peak season. This will also help us to grow without putting further pressure on existing hotspots.The Department is committed to strong regional dispersal in tourism, through the tourism agencies, Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland. In line with the Tourism Action Plan 2019-2021, the agencies are focusing on initiatives to improve regional and seasonal performance.

As provided for in the tourism action plan, and as a result of the increased funding we have provided to the agency this year, Tourism Ireland has delivered a new global brand campaign, its first in seven years, in more than 20 key markets around the globe. This campaign, "Fill your heart with Ireland", has been designed to drive continued growth to the regions and to encourage visitors to travel all year round through the promotion of less-visited attractions and locations around the country. In addition, Tourism Ireland will increase funding for the regional co-operative marketing scheme next year, which supports direct access to regional airports and seaports by overseas visitors.

Fáilte Ireland has also developed initiatives in line with this policy. For example, this autumn, its new food event, Taste the Island, is promoting the island of Ireland's extensive catalogue of food and drink experiences to domestic and international visitors. It also recently launched its platforms for growth capital investment scheme, which will drive growth in the regions. Major new visitor attractions of scale will be developed and existing attractions greatly enhanced under the €150 million programme, which falls under the Government's Project Ireland 2040 strategy.

Over the summer, I launched Tourism Ireland's GB Market Review and Strategy for Growth, which was drawn up in collaboration with Fáilte Ireland, Tourism Northern Ireland and the industry. Britain remains one of our most important markets and British visitors are pivotal to achieving our regional growth and season extension objectives. One of the key priorities of this strategy is creating hub experiences with compelling reasons to venture beyond our main attractions.

When we launched the strategy for the future development of national and regional greenways last year, the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport demonstrated just one of the many ways we are dedicated to the development of sustainable tourism in this country. Sustainability is one of the key components of a greenway built under this new strategy. In June, the Minister, Deputy Ross, and I announced €40 million of funding for ten new projects in nine counties around the country to be constructed between 2019 and 2021. These projects will mark the beginning of a wider network of greenways to be built across this island under the greenways strategy. We are dedicated to growing greenways and, alongside Fáilte Ireland, activity tourism as a whole in this country over the coming years. Not only is it a great form of sustainable tourism, but it will have a positive effect on the economy of this country and the health of its people. It will also help spread tourism into areas that are not currently benefiting from tourism as much as they could and deserve. A total of €23.5 million has been made available for greenways in 2020, which includes an additional €4.5 million from the carbon tax fund. This is a 75% increase over expenditure in 2019.

Remaining competitive is a key part of economic sustainability for tourism. There are a large number of factors that determine competitiveness but for the visitor it comes down to value for money. If we do not provide value for money we will suffer reputational damage and this will impact on our ability to be successful. Capacity plays a part in determining our competitiveness, particularly in terms of accommodation. Accommodation costs have been an area of concern in recent years. Increased demand led to increased room rates, particularly in the main tourist destinations and especially Dublin, as supply did not expand at the same pace. However, a number of new hotels have opened over the past year and there are a number of other projects in various stages of development. This increase in supply should help to address concerns that our accommodation prices are becoming uncompetitive. Of course, accommodation providers also have a very important role in this.

I am conscious there are other costs that can impact the sector. We have heard much discussion of insurance costs in recent times. This is a matter of concern across our economy, not just for tourism, and it does impact on tourism enterprises. As Members know, there are many aspects to this problem but it is one on which the Government is committed to making progress.

Budget 2020 is another positive step towards ensuring the development of sustainable tourism in Ireland and that growth in the area continues. The funding in budget 2020 will allow the tourism agencies to develop new campaigns, growth strategies, and high-quality sustainably-managed visitor experiences, all with an emphasis on regional growth and season extension as provided for in the Tourism Action Plan 2019-2021. Furthermore, extra resources are being provided to support the industry at the end of this year, primarily to support accelerated tourism marketing initiatives aimed at mitigating the impacts of Brexit.

There is a growing consumer demand for sustainable products and destinations. Sustainability practices are becoming the new normal and I believe Ireland is ready to embrace them. I am very keen to hear the views of Senators on this topic. I thank the House for its time.