The Government has responded to a steep decline in tourism outside Dublin by ordering a major revamp of the way it promotes Ireland to foreign visitors, writes Paul Cullen.
The plan will see regional tourism bodies stripped of their administrative and marketing functions, which will henceforth be carried out centrally by Fáilte Ireland, formerly Bord Fáilte.
Some of the 68 tourist information offices around the State may be scaled down or even closed, under the changes approved recently by Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism John O'Donoghue.
The Minister has instructed Fáilte Ireland to implement the changes recommended in a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) report on regional tourism structures, The Irish Times has learned.
As part of a major cost-cutting exercise, outlets and offices run by regional tourism bodies will be subsumed into Fáilte Ireland's operations. The regional bodies will retain a "strategic" role in the design of new tourism products.
With tourism revenue stagnant and Ireland facing increasing competition from other holiday destinations, Mr O'Donoghue has accepted his consultants' proposals for radical restructuring of the industry.
Fáilte Ireland has begun putting in place an expert group to implement the proposals over the next year. "The proposed new arrangements will enhance the delivery of tourism policy and will better service both visitor requirements and the needs of the industry," a spokesman for Mr O'Donoghue said yesterday.
The decision was made in the teeth of strong opposition from some regional tourism bodies who were opposed to any removal of their functions. In May head of Dublin Tourism Frank Magee told a Dáil committee the changes were "nonsensical" and claimed the PWC report was "riddled with inaccuracies".
Mr O'Donoghue insisted yesterday he had taken into account the views of tourism agencies, both national and regional, and of the industry generally.
This year is expected to be another testing one for tourism, with industry sources reporting static visitor numbers in the early part of the year. The overall figures mask a dramatic decline in traditional tourist destinations, particularly along the western seaboard.
The Irish Tourist Industry Confederation says demand from tourists for accommodation outside the capital fell 14 per cent between 1999 and 2003. Bed nights fell 22 per cent in the west and 39 per cent in the Shannon region. This fall was almost offset by an increase in bed nights in Dublin, but tourism sources say the decline in the west has continued this year.
The PWC report questioned whether existing structures were meeting the needs of modern tourists. It criticised tourist information offices for confining their role to the provision of information with "little consideration" given to their future or to changing visitor requirements.
The offices failed to operate in a cohesive and integrated network and their location was dictated by "local political considerations" rather than visitor patterns or needs. Only 10 of the 68 offices make a profit. The report also criticised a lack of marketing focus from the regional tourism authorities. It said this has led to "significant fragmentation" of effort with marketing expenditure spread very thinly across a large number of promotional activities.
"Successful reversal of the declining visitor numbers to the regions will only be achieved when the enterprise base is sufficiently strong and mature [ to] provide world-class, competitive products and services and market them appropriately," the report advised.
The €3.5 million a year spent by regional tourism authorities will henceforth be amalgamated with Fáilte Ireland's €10 million annual spend on marketing of home holidays and other tourism products.
Although the number of trips made to Ireland in the first three months of the year was up 6 per cent, the number of North American visitors was down. Visitors tend to come for shorter trips and more money is spent on attracting them than before.