Tourism Ireland's Paul O'Toole plays down effect ofnegative images of the North and aims to spread business between thejurisdictions, writes Ciaran Brennan

Mr Paul O'Toole could be forgiven for cursing the hand he has been dealt as the new chief executive of Tourism Ireland, a job he accepted last August. An economic downturn that gained momentum in late summer and the events of September 11th, combined with the earlier outbreak of foot-and-mouth, all helped to put the brakes on what had been, until then, the runaway success story of Irish tourism.

Officially introduced on January 1st this year, Tourism Ireland, the all-Ireland tourism marketing body, finds itself operating in one of the most difficult periods for the industry in the past 10 years. But, instead of carping, Mr O'Toole takes a very pragmatic approach to the circumstances.

"Yes, it's a challenge," he says. "Yes, we would have preferred more ideal trading conditions to get bedded down. But we know the reality and we're going to respond to that reality."

Responding to the reality involved an immediate rethink of strategy before the January 1st launch of the company. "We had to take a more hard-edged, commercial, tactical approach and develop different co-operative initiatives with the industry to drive the messages to consumers home in a much harder way. We're taking a much more hands-on approach with our trade partners, both in Ireland and overseas, to really drive the business this year."

Rather than dwell on the downside of last year, Mr O'Toole prefers to look for positive points in setting up in such challenging circumstances.

"Maybe in this difficult environment and in what could be an uncertain year, it's the right time to have a new approach and a new energy coming through because a lot of work has been done on developing new brand materials by the two tourist boards and maybe we're just exactly poised at the right time to launch this," he says.

Added to the events of last year, this year started with an upsurge in tension in Northern Ireland, with rioting and a sectarian murder, which again added to the challenges facing the organisation charged with marketing the island as a destination in international markets.

"Any of those incidents, first of all, are tragedies in their own way and the image they portray of Ireland is broadcast around the world and that definitely makes our job more difficult," he says.

"And we, the same as everybody else, want to see those negative images and the things that causes them to go away. It is important to reflect that Irish tourism has developed in that context over the last 10 years and there have been awful atrocities. Each time they happen, you pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get on with the job of marketing Ireland. We think that, because our proposition is quite compelling, because consumers can to an extent separate these issues in their minds, that we can get on with it. The reality is incidents are fairly well localised and the other reality is people can come here safely."

Tourism Ireland has the difficult task of operating in two historically adversarial, political jurisdictions, two currency zones and alongside two existing national promotional bodies.

"The first thing you have to do is recognise that there are two jurisdictions and two parts of the island," he says. "I have a background in tourism of more than 11 years and I would be very familiar both with regional and local structures here in the Republic, but I also have a good understanding and knowledge of the players in the Northern market as well because I have worked on various cross-border initiatives over a number of years."

A key element for Mr O'Toole will be tempering any unrealistic expectations that the tourist boom enjoyed by the Republic can be easily replicated in Northern Ireland.

"This is not going to be an overnight thing. You're not going to have dramatic and enormous increases particularly in the earlier years because there is a lot to be done in terms of product development and service delivery in Northern Ireland, which they are tackling.

"But the Northern industry is realistic and they have managed to develop businesses and flourish in the environment in which they operate. What we're seeing is an opportunity now to develop the sector in Northern Ireland, which over time can reach some of the levels of success that have been enjoyed in the South."

Tourism Ireland also aims to spread the tourism between the two jurisdictions and encourage visitors to visit both parts of the island.

"Less than 4 per cent of the people who visit here spend at least a night in each of the jurisdictions and we think this is a big opportunity to help share the business in a different way, by encouraging people to move around the country, to stay in both parts of the island and be supported to do that through better infrastructure, better internal transport and the programming of those possibilities by tour operators overseas."

Sustainability is the buzzword being used about tourism projects in Ireland, particularly after huge investment in some interpretative centres failed to attract large numbers.

"What has emerged is quite a rigorous view of the commerciality of different projects to ensure they can be commercially sustainable. But sustainability is much more than just that. It has to embrace social sustainability and environmental sustainability," says Mr O'Toole.

Much has been made of claims that low-cost air carriers could make up for the expected drop-off in US tourists to the island. While welcoming moves to make it easier for low-cost carriers to operate to and from Ireland, Mr O'Toole stresses this is not the panacea for all of the problems faced by tourism in Ireland this year.

"Competitive access to Ireland from our destination markets is crucial to how we build the market," he says. "Low-cost carriers, particularly from new points in Europe, will be important in growing the European markets and we would be keen to see them developing new routes to Dublin, Belfast and to the regional airports.

"But we can't take an overly simplistic approach to access. It is quite complicated. There's no 'one size fits all' strategy for access and Tourism Ireland's role in all of that is going to be to partner carriers (whether it is sea carriers from Britain or air carriers from Europe, North America and Britain) in two areas - developing new routes and, very importantly, utilising the capacity that is there."

Despite the series of setbacks for the industry in the past 12 months, Mr O'Toole says tourism aims to claw back all of the losses of last year.

"We think something like 6.8 million visited the island in 2001 and about seven-and-a-quarter million visited in 2000. We would hope to get as close as we can to the 2000 level and that would mean an overall growth on the island of about 5 per cent. That would, in effect, restore much of the volume business that was lost last year."