Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 24: To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the way he intends to address the recent findings from a survey carried out by a company (details supplied) that only 1% of Europeans would chose Ireland as a tourist destination, the same number as plan to visit Poland or Portugal. [16554/12]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 63: To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the extent to which he expects the tourism sector to expand in the current year on the basis of promotion or projections; the extent to which he expects the economy to benefit therefrom with consequent increased employment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16902/12]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 24 and 63 together.

I assume the Deputy is referring to the "Flash Eurobarometer - Attitudes of Europeans Towards Tourism" Report which was published earlier this month. This survey is part of a regular telephone survey undertaken at the request of the European Commission and aims to get a general picture of sentiment among consumers rather than assess prospects for particular markets.

However, in relation to the statistic that the Deputy cites, it should be noted that 52% of those surveyed planned on holidaying in their home country in 2012. The European countries which scored above Ireland in relation to being a potential tourist destination for individuals from other EU member states in 2012, were Spain (10%), Italy (7%), France (6%), Greece (4%), Germany (3%), UK (3%) and Austria (3%). It should also be noted that the corresponding survey last year reported that 0.6% of Europeans planned a holiday in Ireland in 2011 - which bore little relationship to the final outcome.

The Central Statistics Office reported that there were almost 2.3 million overseas visits to Ireland from Mainland Europe in 2011, up 11.6% on 2010, and visits from Great Britain totalled 2.87 million, up over 5.1% on 2010. Our challenge is to maintain this growth in 2012 and beyond. In this regard, Tourism Ireland, the agency with responsibility for the overseas promotion of Ireland as a tourist destination is targeting growth of 4.5% in overseas visit numbers this year. To help achieve these ambitious targets, Tourism Ireland's marketing campaign is well underway and included a number of high profile initiatives around St. Patrick's Day.

With regard to the domestic market, according to Fáilte Ireland, there are strong indications that Irish people will holiday at home in greater than ever numbers this year and many tourism enterprises are optimistic regarding their own prospects for 2012. The hotel sector in particular is confident of increased volumes from both the overseas and domestic markets. If our target for overseas visits is achieved and the domestic market performs as expected, employment in the industry can be expected to increase this year. Fáilte Ireland projects that the estimated total employment of 180,000 in tourism in 2011, based on their survey of tourism enterprises, could grow by 4,000 or more in 2012.