Cantillon: Tourism sector urges politicians to think big

Think bigger. That is the stark message to policymakers from the tourism industry, fed up with minuscule targets for growth touted by the Government.

The State launched a 10-year plan to boost tourism only last year, which targets €5 billion in expenditure here from 10 million overseas tourists by 2025. The current figure is €4.2 billion from eight million.

While launching its pre-budget submission to the Department of Finance, the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation (Itic), the umbrella body for the industry, complained that the 2025 target is “not an appropriately stretching target”.

It could be met, Itic argues, with an average annual growth rate of just 2 per cent between now and then.

“Imagine the food or pharmaceutical or IT industry accepting a 2 per cent annual growth target? Why should we in tourism be any less ambitious?” says Itic.

The industry believes policymakers should be aiming for 4 per cent average annual growth in spend from foreign tourists – which is, in effect, the monetary value to the Irish economy of tourism as an export.

“A figure of 4 per cent annual growth should be eminently achievable for tourism. This would equate to €6.2 billion in annual expenditure by overseas visitors and, crucially, would create an additional 50,000 jobs.”

Tourism isn’t really an industry at all. Rather, it is an activity that cuts across several disparate industries – transport, hospitality, retail etc. Tourism is, by its very nature, fractured. As such, the sector is highly dependent on the State to pull all the strands together into a coherent message that is marketed by Government agencies abroad.

Itic proposes that the State restore the budgets of the marketing agencies, such as Tourism Ireland, to their peak levels. Itic says the State still spends €20 million less on marketing Ireland abroad than it did in the boom.

Tourism has shown in recent years that it can deliver lightning quick employment growth when the conditions are right. If the industry thinks policymakers are being too conservative, perhaps they should listen.