Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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58. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if his attention has been drawn to the research commissioned by Tourism Ireland predicting that the hospitality sector will struggle to maintain revenue and visitor numbers from Britain in 2017 as a result of Brexit; and the status of the plans his Department has in place to buffer the sector from Brexit. [6097/17]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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In common with the rest of Government, there has been considerable analysis of the challenges which tourism faces because of the outcome of the UK Referendum. In this context, on 23 January 2017, Minister of State Patrick O'Donovan T.D. and I hosted an All-Island Dialogue on the impact of Brexit on the tourism and hospitality sector. At that event Tourism Ireland presented on the research they had commissioned to assess the propensity of consumers living in Britain to travel overseas in a post Brexit world. The research shows that 7% of people living in Britain say they are less likely to holiday overseas in 2017. The research also indicates that spending patterns are likely to change, e.g. 50% of people expect that they will spend less while on holiday abroad.

Tourism Ireland also presented research which estimated that outbound travel from Britain will decline by 2.5% in 2017. Given Ireland's reliance on Britain, from where 41% of our overseas visitors came in 2016, tourism to Ireland is likely to be more impacted than to any other destination.

Tourism Ireland's strategy for responding to Brexit will involve various strands, including defending key segments of the British market, very focussed competition in existing markets in Europe and North America, and pursuing new, potentially lucrative, markets further afield.

In terms of markets further afield, a commitment is given in the Government's Tourism Policy Statement "People, Place and Policy – Growing Tourism to 2025"to prioritising tourism marketing efforts towards those markets providing higher revenue returns. The Programme for Government commits to implementing the policy objectives in the policy statement and achieving the targets for Irish tourism contained therein. The UK vote does not change this.

As regards competing more vigorously in existing markets, a key element of Tourism Ireland's strategy since 2014 has been market diversification which has seen Mainland Europe become the largest contributor of overseas tourism revenue and will see the United States overtake Britain as the number two contributor to tourism revenue over the next few years. In 2017, Tourism Ireland will continue to implement its market diversification strategy and intends to maximise holiday revenue through investment in Mainland Europe and North America.

In addition, the depreciation of the pound against the euro since the UK referendum means that value for money will be a key message for Tourism Ireland in Britain this year. A strong focus on the "culturally curious", who tend to stay longer and spend more, will assist Tourism Ireland in their defence of their British market. Looking to the medium term, Tourism Ireland is currently finalising its corporate plan for the period from 2017-2019. This plan will, inter alia,include the agency's response to marketing Ireland in Britain in the new situation that has developed following the referendum.