'Exciting horizon' ahead for Irish tourism, says minister
Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke has said that there is a "very exciting horizon" ahead for Irish tourism.
A €4.7 billion tourism plan was announced by the Government last week, with investment in key areas to be spread across five years.
Speaking on RTÉ's Drivetime, Mr Burke said that he was "excited" about the plan.
"The rural economy will benefit very significantly. It's key that we have a very strong tourism sector," he said.
"Our tourism sector is our largest indigenous piece of the economy. About 230,000 employees are supported by it, one in every ten jobs, and we have 46,000 SMEs [Small Medium Enterprises] operating on it.
"One of the key things I wanted to do when I was handed the tourism brief is to reflect that it is now in the Department of Enterprise, we do things much differently.
"We really ensure that the strategy we set forth now will enshrine growth in the sector. I'm really excited about our new plan."
Mr Burke said he had reframed the tourism policy that had been put in place by previous governments.
Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke said he was 'excited' about the plan (file image)
"Unfortunately, over a number of years, resources were taken out of key markets like the Asia-Pacific region, the UAE, North America as well. What I'm trying to do at the moment is act on evidence," he said.
"When we have a new route, a direct flight, open up, of which we have, for example, 27 in North America, we have Detroit, Nashville, and Denver which opened up recently, I want to ensure we have resources to mirror those policy changes to ensure that we are absorbing the opportunity and able to sell and get visitors into Ireland.
"We're putting back people on the ground in North America and in the Asia-Pacific region through Tourism Ireland."
"Some may not be high numbers but they are high value and that's a change in policy that I'm directing now as Minister for Tourism," he added.
'Absolutely' responsible to encourage long-haul tourism
The minister said it was "absolutely" responsible to encourage long-haul tourism in the face of the consequences of climate change.
"We are an island economy, and obviously aviation transformation has a long way to go in terms of making it more sustainable, and we will very much work in the innovation piece in trying to achieve that," he said.
"But as an island economy, we need to be very clear that we are open for business and for tourism and those high value markets are ones which I will be going after, ensuring that we are bringing more tourists in."
"We have seen over the last number of months, the fourth consecutive month where we have an increase in tourism numbers come into our country," Mr Burke added.
"November was actually up 13% and with spend at around €347 million, up 10%. That would breed new life into communities.
"The vision I have set out very clearly through the 71 actions over the next five years will bring a huge amount of employment, and really get us to sell our authentic experience that we have right around our country."
Mr Burke said his department was taking its sustainability responsibilities "very seriously".
"We have €300m set aside for decarbonisation. We're working in partnership with so many industries in the private sector to decarbonise," he said.
"Diageo, one of the oldest brewing brands, 265 years old, they have set a plan in partnership with the Irish government to become carbon neutral.
"A lot of other industries have done so, and that's working in partnership.
"Through our tourism as well and through our policy, we're very much focused on reducing our carbon emissions, looking at food waste and other areas and bringing down our emissions by 45% by 2030 on 2018 levels."
"We have the plans in place to continue with reducing our carbon emissions and making ourselves more sustainable and that's going to be very important right across Government," he added.
Read more: Government to invest millions in bid to attract tourists
