Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 95: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism if he is satisfied that the tourism industry here is sufficiently competitive to meet the challenges of the future; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31845/07]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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In considering the competitiveness of any industry, a key measure is the extent to which it can maintain and increase market share. For the first three-quarters of 2007, reports from the CSO show that visitor numbers are up by over 4% on the corresponding period in 2006. The revenue associated with overseas visitors for the first half of the year is up by nearly 8%. This performance is broadly in line with industry targets for the year.

However, maintaining and enhancing competitiveness is a major issue for Irish tourism as it is for Ireland as a whole. In dealing with that issue, it is important to bear in mind that competitiveness is about more than price movements and costs. Tourism is no different, in that respect, to other internationally-traded sectors.

Ireland cannot, and, indeed, should not, attempt to compete on the basis of costs with mass tourism destinations. Our competitive advantage must lie in other areas.

As highlighted recently by my colleague the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance, priorities for building and embedding competitive advantage into the future include:

Product development, innovation and research and development

Cost competitiveness

Marketing Ireland in a changing global environment

Responding to labour supply issues by growing the necessary skills sets through education and training

Ensuring that relevant policies are developed in a coherent, integrated way across Government Departments and State Agencies.

The question of competitiveness in tourism, like any other productive sector, must be seen in that broader light.

The two major tourism events held in Dublin this week, the Fáilte Ireland Annual Tourism conference and the Launch of Tourism Ireland's 2008 Marketing Plans have highlighted the need for the Tourism industry to become the champion of the physical environment, which is a key source of its competitive advantage, and, in terms of enhancing the competitiveness of individual operators, for the industry to move to more energy efficient and low environmental impact solutions in the design, construction and operation of tourism build.

The Tourism Agencies continue to monitor Ireland's competitiveness as a tourism destination and I will encourage them to assist the industry in responding to changing conditions through a variety of programmes in marketing, human resource development, quality enhancement, product development and productivity.

Tourism is just one part, albeit a significant part, of the overall economy. There is a competitiveness challenge for the economy as a whole and that challenge will be addressed by the Government's wider competitiveness agenda.