Ministers support tourism sector at worldwide exhibition

Tourism Ministers from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland supported local tourism at the industry’s largest trade exhibition, in London, this week.

Northern Ireland’s Tourism Minister Arlene Foster and her counterpart in the Republic of Ireland, Martin Cullen TD, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism travelled to London to support local tourism enterprises exhibiting at the World Travel Market, (WTM), the largest trade event in the global tourism calendar.

This year is the 29th World Travel Market which will have 200 countries represented and over 50,000 attendees from the international tourism industry.

Tourism Ireland, the agency responsible for marketing Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland overseas, has over 16 members of the tourism industry from Northern Ireland at its networking stand, representing airlines, hotels, B&Bs, tour operators, visitor attractions and car hire companies.

According to WTM organisers, business to the value of £9billion overall, was transacted at the 2008 event held last November.

Visiting the Tourism Ireland stand, Northern Ireland’s Tourism Minister Arlene Foster said: “This exhibition is the shop window to the global tourism industry. It presents Northern Ireland’s tourism enterprises with an opportunity to promote Northern Ireland as a holiday destination that can deliver a friendly welcome, beautiful scenery and world renowned cultural and heritage experiences.”

The Minister continued: “The industry is facing a challenging time as the global economy slows but it is important to continue to market Northern Ireland to our traditional markets in Great Britain, mainland Europe and North America while targeting new and developing markets such as the Asian markets, which represent the fastest growing markets over the next ten years. Visitors from the Asian Markets stay longer and spend more than the average holiday maker.

“Northern Ireland tourism makes an important contribution to the local economy. In this period of economic turbulence, it is even more important that Tourism Ireland promotes Northern Ireland in overseas markets. Continued promotion of the region, will also help us to achieve our ambitious Programme for Government targets to increase tourist numbers to 2.5million and grow tourism revenue to £520million by 2011.”

Speaking at the event, Martin Cullen TD, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism said: “The scale of the World Travel Market has made it very clear to me just how competitive the whole world of tourism has now become. Every country feels they have something unique to offer the potential tourist and we will have to continue to work very hard for every visitor.”

Minister Cullen added: “Considerable private and public investment has gone into infrastructure and product development over the years and that has been a key driver behind the success of attracting visitors to our shores. It will be vitally important to continue to invest in our tourism product, our brand and in marketing the island overseas.

“The Irish Government is committed to the development of a quality tourism product allocating €161million in Budget 2009 to the tourism sector. I look forward to launching Tourism Ireland’s new brand marketing campaigns at the end of November in Dublin in good time for their roll-out for the 2009 promotional season.”

Hugh Friel, Chairman of Tourism Ireland, said: “The Tourism Ireland stand at the World Travel Market provides a focal point at this massive exhibition for our industry to negotiate and exchange vital contracts, source new products and services, learn about the latest worldwide industry developments and avail of the excellent networking opportunities that a gathering on the scale of this world event offers.

“While the monetary value of the business conducted at WTM is difficult to estimate, the networking opportunities afforded to tourism enterprises by having a presence there are invaluable.This is one of the largest ever industry representations on the Tourism Ireland stand, which is very welcome and essential in the highly competitive global marketplace.

“Tourism Ireland is currently putting the final touches to its 2009 global marketing plans which will be launched to the industry later this month. 2009 is set to be one of the most challenging for many years, as the economies of our major markets struggle to recover and consumer confidence remains downbeat. That said, many consumers will take holidays and short breaks and we in Tourism Ireland will be pulling out all the stops to ensure the island of Ireland is top of mind when making their choices,” said Mr Friel.

Notes to Editors

1. For more information contact:

Sinéad Grace, Tourism Ireland: + 353 87 685 9027

Michelle Hoctor, Press Advisor to Minister Martin Cullen + 353 87 8563070

Ann Williamson, Press Officer to Minister Arlene Foster + 44 789 9864369

2. For media enquiries, please contact DETI Press Office on 028 9052 9297. Outside office hours, please contact the Duty Press Officer via pager number 07699 715 440 and your call will be returned.