Major Marketing Drive To Encourage More Tourists - Hanafin

The Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport Mary Hanafin T.D., last week said that, despite recent difficulties in the tourism sector, the Government is investing heavily in order to increase visitor numbers from all markets in the rest of the year.

"A number of targeted initiatives are already underway including a promotional program of activities to showcase Ireland," she said. "Already this year around St Patrick's Day, we saw many iconic buildings such as the London Eye, the Empire State Building and Sydney Opera House being lit in green to mark the national day.

"There is also a co-operative campaign with over 15 air and sea carriers to promote the value and accessibility of Ireland as a tourist destination while discoverireland.com also has 41 websites in 19 languages attracting more hits than ever.

"The job now is to convert that interest into real tourist numbers in the summer months."

Minister Hanafin said while the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office for February visitor numbers to Ireland are disappointing, they should be seen in the context of the severe weather conditions in January and February, particularly in Britain, which would have impacted on people's plans for overseas travel.

Minister Hanafin said, "the typical visitor to Ireland in January and February comes on a short break from Britain or Western Europe and tends to book quite close to departure date.

"The particularly adverse weather conditions discouraged many from making travel plans. Indeed many countries issued severe weather warnings advising against any unnecessary travel."

The Minister said that continuing economic uncertainty in these months in Britain and Europe was also a factor: "It is important to realise that February visitors account for only about 6% of the annual total.

"Factors such as the Six Nations rugby match being played in Paris this year, rather than Dublin, can also have a big impact on incoming visitors in a low season month such as February.

"While short breaks were down, the number of visitors coming from long haul destinations increased in the first two months of the year."

Minister Hanafin said that "in the first half of this year, Tourism Ireland is investing €26million in one of the biggest promotional programs.

"I expect that this unprecedented drive into our core markets will create conditions for recovery later in the year as the markets absorb the message that there has never been a better time to visit Ireland."

The Minister went on to say that the recent air travel disruption was another unwelcome problem for the tourism industry, however "thankfully air travel is returning to normal.

"During the past week or so we saw the Irish tourism industry responding in a way that shows why Ireland is such a special destination - with special offers and innovative ways to help stranded travellers."

Minister Hanafin concluded by saying that in the past couple of months outbound travel from Britain to all eurozone destinations was significantly down and "this year Tourism Ireland will spend almost €13 million targeting a return to growth from this market by year end."