Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Question 44: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism his views on the recent upsurge in visitor numbers here from Eastern Europe; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21018/06]

John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)
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In 2005, visitor numbers from Mainland Europe to Ireland were up almost 20% to 1.9m generating revenue of €1.23 bn — up 32% on 2004. The performance of this market has surpassed the targets in the New Horizons report. The fact that Mainland Europe is now almost on a par with Britain in revenue terms confirms that we are very much on target in relation to the tourism priority in the Agreed Programme for Government which seeks to broaden our source markets particularly Europe.

Part of the impressive performance on the Mainland European market has undoubtedly been an increased number of visitors from Central and Eastern European countries. For example, last year there were 127,000 Polish visitors to Ireland representing almost 7% of the total number of visitors from Mainland Europe.

Tourism Ireland Ltd is the body responsible for the international marketing of the island of Ireland as a tourist destination. It is already undertaking a wide range of publicity and promotion activities to target new and developing markets in Central and Eastern Europe — capitalising particularly on the increased air access options. This activity includes inward media visits, trade and consumer promotions and developing versions of its new generation Website "www.discoverireland.com" in Polish, Russian, Czech and Hungarian.

Access is key driver of tourism growth and according to the latest intelligence from Tourism Ireland, air capacity from Mainland Europe this Summer will be almost double that available in summer 2004. Tourism Ireland estimates that there will be 35,000 additional seats each-way per week available with substantial growth in capacity from Central and East Europe. I am confident that Tourism Ireland will continue to exploit opportunities that are presented to increase visitors from Europe in general and from Central and Eastern Europe in particular.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 45: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the status of the report of the Tourism Policy Review, New Horizons for Irish Tourism, An Agenda for Action; the number of its recommendations which were put in place by May 2006; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21036/06]

John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)
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The Report of the Tourism Policy Review Group, New Horizons for Irish Tourism: An Agenda for Action, was published in September 2003. It contained a very practical Action Plan. It had a time-frame for implementation and, more importantly, a strong and public monitoring mechanism. It contained ambitious targets for the industry, namely to achieve annual figures of 10 million visitors and €6 billion in foreign revenue by 2012. The Action Plan had a series of Recommendations to be implemented to help meet those targets.

Following its publication, I appointed the Tourism Action Plan Implementation Group for a two-year period to oversee its implementation. The Final Report of the Tourism Action Plan Implementation Group was presented to me in March. Having placed it before Cabinet, I arranged for its publication and it is available on my Department's website.

The Group reported that 63 of the 76 recommendations made in the New Horizons Report, had either been implemented or good progress had been made in relation to them. A detailed analysis of the progress of each of the 76 recommendations is available also on my Department's website.

The Group highlighted the areas where good progress has been made. These include

∙The National Conference Centre,

∙Increases in air access,

∙The proposed bilateral air agreement with the US.

It also pointed to a number of areas where progress has been less satisfactory. These include

∙loss of competitiveness,

∙the need for innovation and product development in the sector,

∙variations in performance between urban and rural areas,

∙access to certain parts of the countryside,

∙the visitor experience at Dublin Airport,

∙VAT deductibility on conference business.

The Implementation Group, expressed itself satisfied with the degree of progress in implementing the strategy which it described as "in many ways better than what was anticipated by the Implementation Group when it first met almost 2 years ago".

I have just appointed a successor to the Tourism Action Plan Implementation Group for the next two years. This Tourism Strategy Implementation Group will continue the important work of the Tourism Action Plan Implementation Group taking up where it left off. Mr. John Travers, who chaired the Tourism Action Plan Implementation Group and the Tourism Strategy Review Group, will be the chairman. The full membership of the Implementation Group is

John Travers (Chairman)

Paul Tansey, Economist

Margaret Jeffares, Managing Director, Les Routiers, Ireland

Dan Flinter, ex Chief Executive, Enterprise Ireland

Nancy Moran, Moran's Seaside Farmhouse

Luke Moriarty, Chairman of the Moriarty Group

Philip Furlong, Secretary General, Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism

Shaun Quinn, Chief Executive, Fáilte Ireland

Paul O'Toole, Chief Executive, Tourism Ireland.