Tourism Ireland and Bord Fáilte today sounded an optimistic note for the tourism industry when they announced their 2003 targets for the number of visitors coming to Ireland.
Both bodies hope to increase the number of tourists visiting Ireland next year by 5 per cent. Plans for the forthcoming year were announced in Dublin this morning.
Tourism Ireland, which has responsibility for promoting the island of Ireland on the world stage, has ambitious plans, aiming to increase visitor numbers to over 7,500 million. It is hoped the number of visitors to Northern Ireland will grow by 8 per cent.
Such growth would exceed the WTO forecast of an annual travel growth rate of 4.1 per cent for the world and 3 per cent for Europe. Visitor revenue growth is targeted to increase by 10 per cent.
Bord Fáilte will be responsible for strategy and plans for marketing to the vital domestic market as well as for the marketing of activity and attraction holidays both in Ireland, and throughout the world in conjunction with Tourism Ireland.
The targets for the domestic market are the frequency of short breaks taken in Ireland and to promote the regional spread of such visits.
Initial forecasts for 2002 predict that despite all of the difficulties, there will be a return to some growth in visitor numbers and that a significant proportion of the business lost in 2001 has been recaptured.
If realised, this will see the industry come very close to achieving the "best case" scenario envisaged at the end of 2001. However, this achievement masks a number of challenges for the industry, most notably the change in 'mix' of visitors which sees a decline in visitor numbers from the long-staying United States market, and a trend towards independent travel and shorter breaks.
Commenting on Bord Failte's 2003 plans, acting Chief Executive Niall Reddy said, "Our challenge for the year is to build on the recovery which has been evidenced so far.
"The Ireland market continues to perform strongly and we have invested heavily in new promotional tools in this area. We are also working hard to aid a full return to 2000 levels for the various activity and attraction sectors in our product tourism division."Sport also remains a key element in the Bord Fáilte portfolio with our teams developing the Sports Tourism Initiative and planning for the holding of the Ryder Cup here in Ireland," he said.