Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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40. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his views on the tourism performance in 2013 to date and his expectations for the remainder of 2013. [22765/13]

Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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46. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans to address the fact that the number of nights spent in Ireland by overseas travellers decreased by 4.7% in 2012, down from 50.3 million to 47.9 million; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22858/13]

Joe O'Reilly (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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48. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his views on the tourism performance to date in 2013; his expectations for the remainder of 2013; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22688/13]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 40, 46 and 48 together.

Figures published by the CSO show that there were over 6.5 million overseas visits to Ireland in 2012 representing a minor increase (0.2%) on the 2011 total. It should be noted that the number of core tourism visits grew strongly with holiday trips up by 3.8% and business trips up by 7.7% compared to 2011. While overall bednights fell in 2012, this was primarily due to a fall of nearly 10% in numbers staying with friends or relatives.  The number of overseas hotel bednights, the most valuable in terms of revenue and jobs, actually grew by 13% in 2012.

I am pleased that the positive trend has continued into 2013 suggesting that the Gathering Ireland 2013 is having a real impact. The most recent figures from the CSO show very strong growth of 7.4% for the first quarter of 2013 compared to 2012, an increase of over 86,000 extra trips. All of our main overseas markets have shown growth in the first quarter with overseas visits from Mainland Europe up 13%, visits from Great Britain up 1.4%, visits from North America up 16.7%, while visits from the rest of the world grew by 5.4%.

The overall target  for the year of The Gathering was to increase the number of overseas visits by 325,000. The figures for the first quarter suggest that we are well on target to achieve and even exceed this as the increase to date is over 25% of the total increase targeted. The overall sentiment for travel to Ireland is good  with particularly encouraging signs for visit numbers from Mainland Europe and the USA, supported by significant growth in transatlantic air access for the peak summer period. Tourism Ireland will continue to roll-out a major consumer marketing campaign to promote Ireland and "The Gathering Ireland 2013" in all our key markets and ensure our targets will be achieved.