Failte Ireland Ceo Paul Kelly
WE ARE WORKING TO GROW TOURISM INCOME IN EVERY CORNER OF THE COUNTRY
Fáilte Ireland’s action plans for 2020 focus on developing and sustaining tourism region by region. The National Tourism Development Authority’s CEO Paul Kelly gives his account of what these plans will deliver.
Welcoming and entertaining visitors is part of our character as a people. As a small island, we have a natural open and welcoming nature and global connections through emigration and family ties around the world that make us an outward looking people.
Offering hospitality is not just in our nature, it is now an economic mainstay. It is a life-source for dispersed communities around the country and an important economic contributor to our cities and towns.
The revenue we earn, from the hospitality we give, returns to us when spent in our schools, our hospitals and on our infrastructure. Tourism brings in revenue of €7.5billion annually and supports 260,000 jobs. The scale of what is at stake is underlined by the simple fact that 22c in every Euro that every visitor spends, ends up as public money. Tourism’s importance as an industry is further underlined when you consider that every €1million spent by tourists supports 27 jobs.
The uncertainty around the implications of Brexit over the past few months has caused momentum to falter. It has stalled the tremendous growth we have earned and enjoyed in recent years and undermined the confidence that is so important to future success. Any fall in visitor numbers is an economic issue that can be explained in numbers, but the effects would be felt by families and businesses in real-time human stories of disappointment and hardship. That will be both a social consequence and an economic fact. We know businesses are fearful and supporting businesses through Brexit, so that they are ‘Brexit ready’ is a role that Fáilte Ireland will continue to deliver on.
But while the threats are regrettably real, we must remember so too are opportunities. The demand to travel and discover new places is an innate human urge and it’s now affordable for so many more people around the world than in the past.
Fáilte Ireland’s underpinning focus on regionality and seasonality ensures sustainable economic benefits, regional balance and better social cohesion.
We are at a critical juncture in our economic as well as our political history. Our plans are about building an Ireland where every part of the country is included and the natural inclination of our people to welcome others is translated into jobs and opportunities.
Regionally, tourism is a powerful force for economic and social good. It can be a sustainable, innovative driver of growth if protected and developed but if we cannot ensure a greater regional spread of tourism, the sector’s potential for generating revenue and jobs will remain untapped in many parts of Ireland.
Ireland’s Ancient East, the Wild Atlantic Way and Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands are examples of the thought-leadership and development that can deliver rich experiences and brilliant visitor experiences regionally and seasonally.
This year, through the Government’s Project Ireland 2040 programme, we will be investing over €12 million to develop better visitor attractions. As we create a world class industry, there is a quiet transformation underway in the experiences we offer our visitors. We will open 25 new and improved visitor attractions and activities in 2020 alone.
We will also increase to 20 the number of local tourism clusters known as Visitor Experience Development Plans this year. These plans, which develop the visitor experiences in specific areas, are facilitated by Fáilte Ireland but the richness of content comes from local communities as they bring the unique and authentic heritage and cultural identity of each local area to life in a compelling way for visitors.
Our plans also involve a new €6million 2020 home holidays marketing campaign called ‘Keep Discovering’ to help drive short domestic breaks across the regions.
We have established a new division in Fáilte Ireland to drive the longterm development of the tourism sector so we’ll also be stepping up our business supports and training programmes for the industry. We will also fund a campaign promoting tourism careers to shift perceptions and attract the volume and quality of talent required to sustain growth.
Foreign Direct Investment is an extraordinary Irish success story but the direct investment by tourists can reach into nooks and crannies around the country that industrial scale investment is unlikely to find. This provides a dividend that is real and relevant to every citizen. At Fáilte Ireland, we are redoubling our efforts to support the tourism industry to face the challenges that lie ahead and ensure that communities across the country, reap the immense social and economic benefits that tourism brings.