Written answers

Wednesday, 25 March 2009

Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism

Tourism Industry

9:00 pm

Photo of Pat BreenPat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Question 153: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism his views on the decline in tourism from the US to Ireland; the implications of this decline for the mid-west region; his plans to supplement the tourism budget to address this decline; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12411/09]

Photo of Martin CullenMartin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The downturn in the world economy has significantly affected tourism and travel globally and travel to Ireland has been no exception. The economic difficulties in the United States are clearly having a negative impact on the affordability of overseas travel for many American consumers and the situation has been exacerbated by currency fluctuations. While this resulted in a reduction in the number of visitors to Ireland in 2008 compared to 2007, it should be noted that over one million visitors from North America still came to Ireland in 2008.

While it is obviously very early days, I was pleased to note that the first monthly overseas visitor figures for 2009, which were published by the Central Statistics Office last week, show that visitors from the United States for the month of January showed a slight increase on the corresponding month of 2008.

Within the overall funding for front-line marketing of Ireland as a tourist destination overseas, the Government allocated €3m for the "Discover Ireland's Wonderful West" campaign in 2008. Funding for the campaign was again provided in 2009, in addition to separate funding of over €3 million for regional marketing overseas. The campaign focuses on ease of direct access from many gateway cities, the good value fares and inclusive packages available as well as showcasing a range of offers from local industry.

Tourism Ireland is continuing to work closely with Fáilte Ireland, Shannon Airport, Shannon Development, and the local tourism industry in the mid-west to vigorously promote the Shannon region through cooperative marketing campaigns. I understand that their campaign has generally been very well received to date.

I remain confident that the tourism sector has the capacity to manage the current challenges and I know that the tourism agencies are doing all they can to ensure that we see a return to growth in overseas visitor numbers as soon as possible.

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