Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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419. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the areas in the tourism sector which have shown the greatest potential for future development and expansion both internally and externally; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23082/16]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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​Tourism continues to contribute significantly to Ireland's economic recovery.  CSO figures for the first five months of 2016 show that there were over three million overseas visits to Ireland, an increase of 13.7% on the same period of 2015.  Thankfully all of our main target markets are showing good growth levels with visits from North America up by over 18%, visits from Mainland Europe up by 11.5% and visits from Great Britain up by over 15%. With regard to revenue, the most recent CSO Quarterly Tourism and Travel publication shows that spending in Ireland by overseas visitors (excluding carrier receipts) in the first three months of 2016 amounted to over €693 million, an increase of 17.5% compared to the same period in 2015. Research carried out on behalf of the tourism agencies and tourism industry has found that certain market segments have a higher likelihood to select Ireland as a destination. Tourism Ireland's overseas marketing activity is weighted towards these segments in order to provide the best return on marketing investment.

In addition, the tourism brand experiences that have been developed by Fáilte Ireland, like the "Wild Atlantic Way", "Ireland's Ancient East", and  "Dublin – A Breath of Fresh Air" – are all designed to meet the needs of the most promising consumer segments in overseas source markets.

The Government's Tourism Policy Statement "People, Place and Policy – Growing Tourism to 2025" was launched in March 2015.  The main targets contained in the Tourism Policy Statement, to be achieved by 2025, are as follows:

- Overseas tourism revenue to increase to €5 billion net of inflation, compared to €3.5 billion in 2014;

- Overseas visits to Ireland to increase to ten million, compared to 7.6 million in 2014; and

- 250,000 people to be employed in the tourism sector, compared to around 205,000 at present.

In 2015, a Tourism Leadership Group was appointed to put in place a Tourism Action Plan containing key actions required in the period to 2018 in order to achieve the overall objectives in the Policy Statement. The Tourism Action Plan was published in January and contains actions across a range of key issues including skills in the tourism industry; supply of visitor accommodation; overseas tourism marketing; and the contribution of Local Authorities to tourism development.  My Department is now working closely with the tourism agencies on the implementation of all of the 23 actions contained in the Plan.