Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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642. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the extent to which The Gathering has been utilised as a means of promoting tourism directly; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38439/13]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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665. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the extent to which The Gathering has been a catalyst for the promotion of the tourism sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41139/13]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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666. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the degree to which the economic benefit generated by The Gathering has been quantified; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41140/13]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 642, 665 and 666 together.

I am pleased to report continued good progress on the Gathering Ireland 2013 - Ireland's biggest ever tourism initiative. The overall target is to attract at least 325,000 extra overseas visits to Ireland in 2013. If this target is achieved, it will generate an additional €170 million in revenue this year, based on historic spending patterns. Recent figures from the CSO show that we are well on target to surpass this target. For the eight month period between January and August, there was a 6.5% increase in the number of overseas visits to Ireland compared with the corresponding period of 2012. All of our main overseas markets grew in this period with visit numbers from Great Britain up by 3.7%; visits from Mainland Europe up 4.8%; visits from North America up 16.5% and visits from other long-haul markets up by 11.3%.

The general response from the public and tourism stakeholders has been overwhelmingly positive. There are now almost 5,000 individual events confirmed on the Gathering website. These include clan gatherings, festivals, special sporting events and concerts taking place all across the country.

Obviously the ambitious targets for overseas visits and associated revenue could only be achieved if people in our main source tourism markets were aware of the initiative. Tourism Ireland undertook a major consumer campaign to promote The Gathering to the people across the world that feel linked by family, friends or otherwise with Ireland. The agency also undertook co-operative activity with the major airlines and ferry operators to highlight the value fares on offer.

While we have very much targeted this year, I have no doubt that the pay-off for participation will have longer term positive consequences with many of the events developing into annual traditions and creating on-going connections with other parts of the world. The Gathering 2013 project advisory board has been working with the Gathering 2013 team and the tourism agencies on securing the legacy of the Gathering 2013, to ensure the good work being achieved is continued, and that the outcome of the Gathering continues to have lasting positive benefits.