Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)
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Question 107: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism if, in view of the recent CSO figures on visitor numbers here in the first half of 2005 he will commission a study to determine which tourist regions benefitted the most and least from these visits compared to previous years. [28443/05]

John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)
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I do not need to commission a study in relation to regional tourism statistics. Regional tourism statistics are routinely available through information already captured by the Central Statistics Office in conjunction with Fáilte Ireland. The Fáilte Ireland survey of overseas travellers, SOT, involves interviewing 10,000 overseas visitors annually, on departure. A question in that survey identifies each location in Ireland where overseas visitors overnighted and the number of nights that they spent in that location. The SOT captures up to 700 locations throughout the country and the results are analysed by county and by region.

The distribution of overseas regional visits and overseas regional nights identified through the Fáilte Ireland SOT is, using a number of formulae, married to the results of the CSO's country of residence survey and the passenger card inquiry and the regional distribution of visitors and expenditure is obtained. The regional distribution of our Northern Ireland visitors and their spend is based on information supplied by NITB from the United Kingdom tourism survey, UKTS. As with visitors above, the visits are based on any overnight in the region and the spend is distributed based on the regional share of Northern Ireland visitor bed nights.

The regional distribution of domestic visits and spend is based on the CSO household travel survey. The CSO survey provides a distribution of domestic visits and expenditure by region. These figures are adjusted by Fáilte Ireland, according to a formula, to replicate the tourist regions.

This year, my Department has been in close discussion with the tourism agencies and the CSO in relation to the further development and refinement of tourism statistics. This is also an area that has been identified for North-South co-operation and I expect it to be discussed with relevant Departments and agencies in the North in the near future. The plans of both Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland for 2005 have a strong focus on facilitating good growth in tourism numbers across all of our tourism regions.