FG Ardfheis: Government aims to increase visitor numbers by one third

Fine Gael in Government aims to increase visitor numbers by one third, from 7.6 million to 10 million in the next decade, Minister for Transport and Tourism Paschal Donohoe has said.

That increase, by 2025, “will lead to an increase in tourism spending to €5billion and, most importantly of all, an extra 50,000 new jobs in the tourism sector”.

Only a strong, stable Government can make policy decisions to ensure Ireland’s safety for the future and not a “rag-bag of independents, Marxists and economic learner drivers”.

It was only stable Government, offered by Fine Gael and Labour that could deliver it, he claimed.

“Now would be exactly the wrong time to sit back and take that success for granted or to put that success at risk.”

He said that “rag-bag” could put at risk, the policy decisions “needed to ensure our country’s safety for the future”.

The Minister said Ireland was in “recovery mode, although it is certainly true that many people have yet to feel the benefits of economic recovery in their daily lives”.

In a rallying speech for the party faithful, echoing those of Fine Gael Cabinet members, Mr Donohoe highlighted the achievements of the Government.

He said the economic recovery “did not happen by accident but through the sacrifices of you, the Irish people, and the pursuit of the right policies by Government”.

He said investment in tourism was a crucial part of plans to create “at least 40,000 new jobs throughout our economy this year”.

He said "last year was the best year ever for visitors from North America, Germany, France and Spain".

Tourism, he said, “is at the very heart of this Government’s economic plans and has been central to our job creation strategy since coming to office”.

Highlighting the success of “taking tourism seriously”, he said visitor numbers had grown from just over six million in 2010 “to a staggering 7.6 million last year”, an increase of over 25 per cent since since 2011 when the Coalition took office and an increase of 9 per cent last year.

A crucial part of the Government’s economic reform agenda “is the need to ensure that we never again become reliant on too few industries or income streams to fund the social services we all rely on”.

That was Fianna Fail’s way he said to applause, and “we know, to our cost, how badly that failed”.

He said cutting the travel tax to zero “led directly to new flights into Ireland and increased capacity on existing routes”. He said 1.7 million additional passengers flew through Irish airports last year as a result of this tax reduction.

The cut in the VAT rate on tourism products and services to 9 per cent led to about 30,000 new jobs being created in the tourism industry.

“It is this Government that has supported Irish tourism through initiatives like the Gathering and the Wild Atlantic Way.”

Mr Donohoe said “I am particularly struck by the renewed confidence in the tourism sector. At the end of 2010, only 28 per cent of tourism businesses were positive about the season and the year ahead. That number now stands at 75 per cent.”

Setting out the Fine Gael stall for a second term in office, the Minister said his party “is deeply ambitious for this country. For us this is not about completing a term in Office, it’s about laying the foundations for a better future.”

Fine Gael has “a long-term economic plan to secure the recovery, end boom-and-bust cycles, cut taxes on working families and get this country working again”.

The Minister will publish a new tourism strategy shortly.