Anne Lucey
Cork Kerry Tourism, in conjunction with Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland, are planning the industry's biggest marketing campaign in years in North America.
However, there are increasing fears that the strength of the euro against the dollar will dampen American enthusiasm for coming to Ireland, a tourism briefing in Killarney heard yesterday.
The smoking ban was likely to attract Americans and would be strongly promoted during the campaign's 10-city marketing drive. US and Canadian markets appreciated smoke-free bars and places of recreation.
The new trend was to come to Ireland for short breaks, and so marketing efforts would also be directed at the 30 areas in mainland Europe and Britain with direct access to Cork and Kerry, said Ms Maura Moynihan, chief executive of Cork Kerry Tourism. The marketing drive will begin later this month.
The weakness of the dollar was a concern but it was "one of the variables of doing business", Ms Moynihan said. Golf holidays were performing well. Many tourists also tended to make late bookings for their holidays here, she added.
Mr Malcolm Connolly, industry development officer with Fáilte Ireland, said operators were more optimistic about 2004 than they were going into 2003.
Ireland's scenery, people and a sense of place remained the constant attractions for foreign tourists, he said.
Most complaints were about roads, particularly secondary roads, and sign-posting, along with the cost of eating out and drinking. There were few or no complaints about one-off housing which, it is often claimed, is destroying Ireland's main tourism product: rural scenery.
Mr Shaun Quinn, chief executive of Fáilte Ireland, said 2004 would exceed 2000 and be a record year - assuming there was no further disruption to international travel or deterioration in currency exchange rates. A target growth of 4 per cent in overseas visitors had been set, which would bring in foreign exchange earnings of €4.3 billion.