In the 1970s Northern Ireland was virtually unmarketable as a tourism destination. This was more a product of a negative worldwide image fuelled by television than the reality on the ground, where statistics consistently showed that the North was actually quite a safe location for visitors.
However, in tourism, image is everything, and so visitors were few. Indeed the hospitality industry south of the Border was happy with the marketing by Bord Failte of a two-Irelands island.
Now things are very different. Since the peace process good-news stories have by and large dominated the media. There are, of course, still problems, but the tide of history seems to be moving more towards the question of who is winning the peace, as opposed to the war. The result of the peace process is, therefore, that North and South are now co-joining under a new, freshly rebranded image as Destination Ireland.
Such a break with the old divisions is good news, but it brings with it the pressure of increased expectations for tourism, particularly north of the Border, where there may be an unrealistic belief that the tourism boom of the last decade in the Republic will now expand easily and effortlessly in the direction of the Glens of Antrim.
On the face of it, what is to be seen south of the Border is a fine model of small-nation success. An economy which was correctly described by Ian Paisley in the mid-1980s as a shambles is now the jewel in the EU crown. Tourism numbers have trebled to almost 6.5 million and, despite the shock over foot-and-mouth disease, the long-term outlook is for a continued growth in visitor numbers.
The conventional wisdom is that we have used our EU funds wisely and have reaped the benefits. Since 1994 £369 million of EU money has been invested in southern tourism, and according to the Tourism Minister, Jim McDaid, "the record-breaking performance of the industry since attests to the success of the operational programmes which dispersed this funding".
Nevertheless, not all such money has been wisely spent. While most projects have not been negative headline-grabbers, such as the Jeanie Johnson, it is undoubtedly true that our resources have been dispersed somewhat haphazardly. For example, we have invested in a total of 350 visitor centres nationwide, with the majority now attracting fewer than 10,000 visitors annually.
As might be expected from these disappointing figures, parachuting new visitor centres into under-capacity regions without a wider developmental plan has done little to redress the primary problem of Southern tourism, the question of regional imbalance.
In the Republic, tourism is still heavily concentrated on three main areas - Dublin, the south-west and Galway-Connemara - between May and September. In high season, all three are at a level of capacity where further unplanned increases in the number of visitors pose a threat to the physical environment and are likely to cause a decline in the quality of the holiday experience for our visitors.
This is not to say that we should not congratulate ourselves on attracting large numbers of tourists and that, in the future, we will not be aiming for more. However, the lesson for the new all-Ireland tourism body is that greater visitor numbers demand more emphasis on sustainable development while retaining the integrity of our unique national selling points.
Even in the areas of highest tourist concentration, which in the case of Northern Ireland is likely to be north Antrim, this can be done, but only with an emphasis on imaginative planning, seasonal dispersion and targeted marketing.
In the 1980s, when the Republic was stuck at two million visitors a year, and the Northern industry was virtually nonexistent, a somewhat haphazard approach to tourism development seemed sufficient.
Today, with numbers to the entire island close to 7.5 million, such an approach no longer suffices for the visitor or the host population. Already attitudinal surveys in the Republic show that scenery has taken over from the friendliness of the people as the primary selling point.
The lesson for the future is that the legendary warmth of the Irish people North or South must not be taken as a natural and unlimited asset to be presumed upon, but a valuable resource which must be nurtured and supported by sound planning and a considerate approach to the host populations, particularly in areas of heavy visitor concentration.
Tourism Ireland Ltd, the title for the new marketing body for North and South, has appointed Paul O'Toole as chief executive. This in itself must be seen as a good start, considering last April's debacle around the much trumpeted appointment and subsequent withdrawal of a job offer to one of the candidates for chief executive of Visitscotland, the new image company for Scottish tourism.
Tourism Ireland is at least to be congratulated on avoiding such an instant train wreck, and Mr O'Toole should be welcomed, as his honeymoon is likely to be a short one.
Apart from dealing with the confidence-damaging fallout from foot-and-mouth disease and the parades issue, he will be operating in two, historically adversarial, political jurisdictions, two currency zones and alongside two existing national promotional bodies and a host of other smaller agencies, all with some influence on policy-making.
On the positive side, he will have an opportunity for the rebranding of Ireland as a one-destination island and the positioning of new tourism growth centres in the regions. Such innovations will need, as a prerequisite, to be supported in both jurisdictions with enhanced levels of investment aimed at upgrading weak social infrastructures, allowing for a better dispersion of tourism flows among regions.
In the medium term, Tourism Ireland must strive towards a situation where Westmeath, Waterford, Armagh and other destinations can rank alongside Kerry, the Causeway Coast and Dublin in terms of international visitor recognition.
Our performance together as Destination Ireland will determine whether this island goes the boom-and-bust road demonstrated by Spain in the 1970s and 1980s or the way of long-term sustainable growth as exemplified by Switzerland for over a century.
As the key man for all-Ireland tourism, Mr O'Toole must ensure that Ireland continues, even with ever-increasing visitor numbers, to be a destination for the discerning holidaymaker wishing to interact with a cultured and welcoming people and does not come to be regarded as an English-speaking Spain in the rain.
Carmel Needham is a lecturer in tourism, marketing and development at High School International in Limerick
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