Tourism Renewal Group issues Report
In 2003 a comprehensive plan was drawn up called, New Horizons for Irish Tourism: An Agenda for Action. This report set out a comprehensive strategy for developing the industry covering a 10 year period to 2012. A detailed plan of specific actions which would be required in order to achieve the objectives of attaining 10 million overseas visitors, generating €6 billion by 2012 was set out.
The report also recommended that a half-way review be undertaken to see how the industry was performing, if targets were being met, and to recommend any essential changes which might be desirable. That review has just been completed and was launched today by the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Martin Cullen T.D. An expert group, Chaired by Maurice Pratt, worked through the summer to produce the new report and recommendations which will guide the industry over the next 5 years.
Overall, performance up to 2007 was good, but the strong headline growth in visitor numbers, and the exceptional growth in domestic demand, partially concealed a number of weaknesses including; the loss of price competitiveness, weaker growth from traditional higher spending markets, and a weaker performance of visitors travelling for leisure only. This delivered a poorer than expected revenue performance over the period.
The environment for Irish tourism has changed radically in the past couple of years. The pace, scale and nature of changes to the global and domestic economies have been exceptional and entirely unanticipated. Tourism has been affected like every other sector worldwide.
The environment in which Irish tourism must stablise and return to growth is extremely challenging. But it can be done. The report from the Tourism Renewal Group charts the way. Click here to read the Executive Summary, or the whole report.
October 8th 2009
October 8th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
It is good to see the report published. Although there are many generalitiies one nettle that the grouping could really tackle and it is alluded to, is the area of statistics. The CSO needs to take over the role in a more meaningful way. Regional toursim figures are an exampe of how poor we are at analysing our industry. One statistic that ahs been lost to us is the Pure Holiday Visitor – a barometer that conveys the real tourism picture to any accommodation provider.The industry has rightly been sceptical of the figures for a long time- we have an opportunity to do something. Another area that is weak is the area of the “knowledge based” or “Smart Economy” We have no programmes to study innovation or bench mark our progress in the development of innovation within the industry. Jim Deegan’s unit in UL is ahead of most on this issue and the sooner we establish UL as a National Centre for Tourism Innovation the sooner we may actually wake up and make strides in this regard. Overall, well done to the review group but lets begin the real work now!
October 9th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
“knowledge based” or “Smart Economy”? – I’ve always suspected these terms are meaningless buzz words used by politicians to fool us all into thinking they have a plan. Because any country serious about even starting to deliver a ‘smart economy’ would have ensured it had a robust, nationwide broadband infrastructure years ago.
Ireland is nowhere close to delivering this, having bundled our telecommunications infrastructure into the Eircom floatation because without it Eircom was worthless. The cost of this to the country ever since probably exceeds the revenue generated at the time by many multiples.
Evidence of our broadband deficiencies occurred only last weekend with reports of foreign media (here for the Lisbon Treaty results) having many problems accessing reliable broadband connections from Dublin Castle.
Elsewhere around the country wireless access is being used to plug coverage gaps that will eventually deliver broadband speeds up to a maximum of 7MB – by which time France will be rolling out 100MB speeds.
If we’re really smart therefore, we’ll quit allowing our politicians to pretend they’re going to deliver the kind of ‘smart economy’ they’ve been hyping for years with little to show for it. Instead we‘ll establish where our real strengths, opportunities and assets lie (tourism, agriculture, green technology, green energy, environment, etc.) and work on them relentlessly.
In the meantime Eircom should be renationalised temporarily with the sole intention of regaining ownership and control of the telecommunications infrastructure that generations of taxpayers paid for. After that the rest of Eircom should be re-sold for whatever little it’s worth.
None of any of this will achieve anything of course, unless our lack of competitiveness is addressed. Because while room rates and various special offers are undoubtedly competitive and excellent value for money, Ireland is still way out of kilter with regards to the everyday things tourists like to do, eating out, having a few drinks etc. etc.
So instead of persisting with the meaningless domestic benchmarking slagging match currently going on between two overpaid sectors, we should benchmark ourselves internationally and against those with whom we compete in all sectors. Because our lack of competitiveness and the current budget deficit are the two greatest short term threats to our recovery.
October 9th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
Congratulations to those involved in producing the Report. It is excellent.
Perhaps its most notable feature is the concluding remarks of the Chairperson, Maurice Pratt, as follows:
‘The greatest insight I have gained from chairing this review group is the extent to which the sector is taken for granted, principally I believe because tourism is embedded as an activity in every town and parish in Ireland. The numbers don’t lie….it accounts for 4% of the country’s GNP. If it receives the recognition and support its scale deserves, it stands ready to play its part in our journey to recovery’.
Ireland does not have a choice. Tourism must become a top priority for decision makers & commentators alike. Not only can it stimulate and sustain indigenous industry, it also has the capacity to make an impact in tackling our unemployment crisis. Taking time out from the recent Global Economic Forum to be interviewed on the Late Late Show, Alan Joyce and Sir Gerry Robinson identifed tourism as the one industry with potential for development. Despite the government focus on science and technology, tourism will be as important to the island of Ireland in the coming years as it has been to Kerry over the past decades.
So I’m glad to see Report recognised the importance of making tourism much more visible and integrated into economic policy. Other countries have already identified this. For example in New Zealand, its Prime Minister, John Key, is also the ‘Minister of Tourism’. Scotland is raising awareness of the importance of tourism to its economy with an annual ‘Scottish Tourism Week’. Organised by the Scottish Tourism Forum, the week is designed around a series of events to encourage the private, public and elected sectors towards a single positive agenda. From a research perspective, Tourism Research Australia provides a useful roadmap for us to follow.
Michael Vaughan made some interesting comments about tourism innovation. Scotland set up a Tourism Innovation Group in 2002. It is focussed on five themes including Arts & Cultural Tourism, Global Perspectives, Food & Tourism, Sustainable Tourism and Application of Technology. It also hosts an annual Tourism Innovation Day to help owners and managers spot the opportunities for innovation and growth in their organisation and learn from a panel of experts to help turn ideas into reality.
As a sector with many elements, tourism is very interdependent. Perhaps now is the time to consider how it can become more integrated.
October 13th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
This is a very interesting and comprehensive report. The Chairman and his group deserve congratulations.
There isn’t much in it for us coach tour operators, but I understand it was taking a much wider view than analysis of particular sectors.
Just one other concern: the photos used in the report are mostly the ‘same ol’ same ol” shots of castles, lakes and misty mountains. While this image of Ireland remains important for our tourism marketing, it doesn’t take into account the image of modern tourism, particularly in an urban setting.
They include pubs, sports stadia, theatres and other cultural venues, coach and backpacker tours, surfing, spas and conference centres. Also, since the report mentioned tourism’s role in repaying the State’s investment in infrastructure, why not a shot of some of our new infrastructure?
This may seem trivial, but readers take in more information with pictures than they do with words. So we have a better chance of influencing the reader with some well chosen photos.
October 14th, 2009 at 10:12 am
Have read the summary report only at this time and agree fully with all of the action points – survival and recovery. Recovery Action 7 took my attention particularly. Access into Ireland is reducing fast. This together with the new group booking terms with Aer Lingus, introduced in Sept 09, has fragmented partnerships that have been in place for many years with overseas trade – question will be how to fix and also how to find alternative means to get groups into Ireland. Suggest that this needs to be featured under Survival and not in Recovery.
It appears that South Africans travelling to Ireland will need Visas in the future.
We say we need to make Ireland easily accessible to all – do we really mean it??