Poor facilities at Dublin airport have been a "root cause" of negative impressions of Ireland gained by tourists, a new report says today.
The third and final report of the Tourism Policy Review Group says tourism brought in some €4.3 billion in foreign revenue and provided jobs for some 150,000 people last year. It also generated a further €1 billion in domestic revenue in 2005.
However, a number of negative factors, including conditions at Dublin airport, Vat on conference business, countryside access and "significant" dissatisfaction with the standard of road signage throughout the country, are affecting tourism strategy.
The report says long-awaited, essential investments in Dublin airport must be delivered on time and within budget.
On the issue of signposting, the report says: "It is difficult to understand why simple, straightforward road signage standards for different types of roads cannot be established and applied on a consistent basis across the country."
Minister for Tourism John O'Donoghue
John Travers, chairman of the review group, said progress on the tourism strategy was "in many ways better than what was anticipated by the Implementation Group when it first met almost 2 years ago".
His report says there has been good progress in some areas, including the level of commitment by the tourism industry, the Government and the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism. It also welcomes the proposed Ireland-US bilateral air agreement announced last November.
The Government's announcement in November that a provisional tender had been selected to build the National Conference Centre in Dublin also hold "major potential" for attracting significant additional tourism to Ireland, the report said.
Ambitious targets are set in the report to double overseas revenue earnings by 2012 and to increase visitor numbers to some 10 million a year.
However, it also highlights the loss of competitiveness in the tourism sector here in recent years as well as a negative perception of Dublin airport on the part of visitors.
Ireland also has difficulties in attracting conference business because of differences between the Irish Vat regime and that of other countries, the report says.
"The importance of tourism to the Irish economy cannot be understated. The overall growth target in visitor numbers for 2006 is 5 per cent which would see Ireland attracting over seven million visitors for the first time," said Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism John O'Donoghue.
"We cannot afford to be complacent about our tourism revenue, however, with competition from ever increasing new tourism destinations.
"The falling numbers of visitors to rural areas is also a worrying trend that needs to be tackled. The work of the Implementation Group has proved invaluable in highlighting both the advances and barriers to achieving Ireland's full tourism potential."