Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Question 109: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism his views on the competitiveness indicators developed by the World Economic Forum for the world travel and tourism competitiveness index; his plans to utilise same here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37385/09]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the World Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index was referred to in the Report of the Tourism Renewal Group which was published on 8 October 2009. I welcome the Report as the central framework for a strategic response to the challenges facing the tourism sector. I refer the Deputy to my response to the Priority Questions No. 96 and No. 97 put by Deputies Upton and Mitchell in relation to the Report of the Tourism Renewal Group generally.

The Tourism Renewal Group examined the tourism policy and programme priorities, actions and targets, with a focus on the new challenges facing the industry. The Renewal Group considered, inter alia, what targets might be most usefully employed to measure and direct tourism strategy. In addition to recommending measuring the share of the global and domestic markets held by the Irish tourism industry, as well as visitor and holidaymaker numbers, the Report of the Tourism Renewal Group recommended the use of benchmarks of competitiveness. This reflects the fact that tourism competitiveness is multidimensional and it is more than simply costs – it is also about the quality of service and experience of the visitor. It is important to benchmark competitiveness, as performance in terms of visitor numbers is heavily influenced by economic conditions in source markets.

In that regard, the Renewal Group identified the Tourism and Travel Competitiveness Report, produced by the World Economic Forum, as a potential source of such benchmarks. The WEF Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report is similar in nature to its more widely known international Competitiveness Reports. The WEF measures different regulatory and business-related issues, which it has identified as levers for improving travel and tourism competitiveness in countries around the world. It scores and ranks every country across 72 different areas, grouped under 14 pillars. As with its other Competitiveness Reports, the WEF uses both hard statistical data and responses to the World Economic Forum's Executive Opinion Survey.

As the Index is global, it uses a wide range of criteria, not all of which are relevant to a small, developed, Western European destination like Ireland. The Renewal Group therefore proposed that Ireland's competitiveness be benchmarked

using those criteria in the Index most relevant to Ireland and against countries, which are reasonably comparable to Ireland in terms of their tourism offering, taking account of their cultural and natural assets, size, location and GDP.

The Renewal Group recommended that the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism work with the tourism agencies, with the assistance of the OECD and the WEF, on a suitable subset of indicators that can usefully benchmark Ireland's tourism competitiveness. My Department has commenced an examination of the Group's recommendation and will be following it up with the other bodies in the coming months.