Concern over east and west tourism disparity

Concern has been expressed by a tourism executive over the widening gap in the number of people visiting the east of the Republic compared with the rest.

The acting chief executive of Bord Fáilte, Mr Niall Reddy, was addressing a regional tourism conference in Limerick.

The latest figures show that the annual overseas tourism revenues for the east have increased by 25 per cent, while the western regions experienced a 4 per cent drop in revenues for the same period.

Presenting the figures for 2001, the tourism manager for Shannon Development, Mr John Leonard, said visitor numbers from Britain to the east increased by 23 per cent over the previous year compared to a 5 per cent drop to the west, while US visitors to the east rose by 11 per cent compared to no increase in US visitors to the west.

After the presentation at the conference where Bord Fáilte, Tourism Ireland and Shannon Development unveiled their marketing plans for 2003 for the Shannon region, Mr Reddy said: "There is no doubt the figures do portray what is a worrying situation."

However, he rejected the notion of a tourism authority devoted to the west of Ireland. "I'm never convinced that structures ultimately are the answer and you can argue that within tourism we can be overstructured; there are on the ground a huge number of organisations involved in tourism and the answer lies elsewhere, that we might need to rationalise rather than create a west of Ireland structure.

"There is not a lack of concern over the west, but I think the answer lies in innovative marketing," he added. "It is sometimes difficult to market one area but if the regions co-operate that is the way forward."

On the disparity between east and west, Mr Leonard said: "It is an issue and a matter of concern and it is a challenge for the tourism agencies in the west to tackle." He cited greater air access to Dublin and increased population in the east as two major factors.

Mr Leonard said that the three regional tourism boards dealing with tourism from Donegal to Cork had come together to market the region as one entity, which Mr Joseph Byrne of Tourism Ireland described as "making an awful lot of sense". He also rejected the idea of a western authority dealing with tourism. "The strength of regions is that they are close to the industry. If you had a western regional authority it would be too big and you would have duplication."

Ms Mary Gleason of the Old Ground Hotel in Ennis, Co Clare, told the conference that without additional funding to support tourism in the west, "we are in dire trouble this year".

Earlier, Mr John King, Shannon Development's director of tourism and heritage, said that attractions operated by Shannon Heritage, including Bunratty Castle and the Cliffs of Moher, experienced an 8 per cent drop in visitor numbers last year.

He believed however there was some optimism for this year after a second-half recovery in 2002 and "barring external shocks, international visitor numbers to the region should increase by 4 per cent to 5 per cent".

Mr King also said direct air access to Shannon Airport was critical for the west.