I have received notice from the Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment that she wishes to make a statement on the North/South Ministerial Council (NSMC) meeting in tourism sectoral format.

In compliance with section 52 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998, I wish to make a statement regarding a meeting of the North South Ministerial Council in tourism sectoral format, which was also held in Clogher on 16 December 2009. Junior Minister Gerry Kelly and I represented the Northern Ireland Executive. The Irish Government were represented by Martin Cullen TD, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism. My statement has been agreed with junior Minister Kelly. I make the statement on behalf of us both.

The Council considered a report from the Chairperson of Tourism Ireland, Mr Hugh Friel, on the work of its board and noted the very difficult global economic conditions that had a negative impact on tourism performance in 2009.

The Council discussed Tourism Ireland’s business plan for 2009 and noted that Tourism Ireland had applied efficiency savings to its 2009 budget in accordance with guidance issued by the two finance Departments. The Council approved the 2009 business plan and recommended the 2009 budget provision of £55.652 million for Tourism Ireland.

The Council noted Tourism Ireland’s draft business plan for 2010 and its key priorities, which included delivering growth of 3% in visitor numbers to Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in 2010; sustaining or improving the island of Ireland’s competitiveness interest ranking in each top 10 source markets; growing total promotable visitors to Northern Ireland by more than 10% in 2010; increasing participation by the industry in co-operative sales opportunities by 20% in our top 10 markets by December 2010; and improving Tourism Ireland’s organisational efficiency and effectiveness in 2010.

The Council received a presentation from Tourism Ireland’s chief executive, Niall Gibbons, on its review of the Great Britain market and welcomed a 10-point marketing action plan that is designed to ensure that visitor numbers from Great Britain return to growth in the short term.

The Council noted Tourism Ireland’s annual report and accounts for 2008. It also approved 2009 business plans for the North/South Language Body, Waterways Ireland and the Food Safety Promotion Board. The Council agreed to hold its next meeting in tourism sectoral format in spring 2010.

I thank the Minister for her detailed report. I note the comment in the report that the very difficult global economic conditions had a negative impact on tourism in 2009. Everybody recognises that. However, this year’s forward plan for Tourism Ireland seeks to deliver growth of 3% in the number of visitors to Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in 2010. In addition, it is committed to:

“growing total promotable visitors to Northern Ireland by more than 10% in 2010”.

Given that we are out of the recession but have not fully recovered, are the targets that were put forward by Tourism Ireland achievable?

There is no doubt that very challenging targets have been set by Tourism Ireland. However, it feels that they can be met. I commend the energy with which Tourism Ireland has attacked the issue, because, to be entirely honest, as I am being, independent analysts are saying that we will remain in a very slightly negative economic position this year. Therefore, to turn that around to 3% growth for the entirety of both jurisdictions will be a huge challenge to Tourism Ireland.

However, I have been impressed by its plans and strategies for attacking markets moving forward, particularly key markets, which for us include Great Britain, with the Great Britain review to which I referred, and other markets, such as Germany, which Tourism Ireland wants to attack. I accept that the targets are challenging, but because I attended the launch of the 2010 business plan at the Ulster Museum, I know that the industry very much wants to make growth happen. That is why it talks about more:

“participation by the industry in co-operative sales opportunities”.

That really must become part of what is being done for us by Tourism Ireland and the Northern Ireland Tourist Board.

I am encouraged by the industry’s attitude.

I, too, welcome the Minister’s statement. She referred to the GB review. Last year was, and the coming year will probably be, difficult. However, given the currency advantages that we have in relation to the Irish Republic, will the Minister outline the possible advantages and outlook of the 10-point marketing plan, whereby we could expect to see significant gains in the next two or three years?

Great Britain is our most important overseas tourist market and, due to the recession and economic factors, many people are engaging in the horrendous pastime of “staycations” and, therefore, are not moving from the island of GB. That presents a huge challenge, which Tourism Ireland is attacking with vigour. Tourism Ireland has presented me with a 10-point marketing plan, which comprises two phases: a stabilisation phase, followed by a recovery phase.

Stabilisation is all about re-engaging with and re-energising the GB trade to look at Northern Ireland as a place that, although it lies across a small stretch of water, is still a sterling area and, therefore, is good value for money. There is a need to promote that value. We want to reinforce our cultural difference as a reason why people should come. Obviously, we cannot sell Northern Ireland on its weather, so we must think about other ways to encourage people to come here. The recovery phase will target business visitors, who tend to spend more than people who come to stay with family and friends. I am content that plans are in place, and we are now moving into the next stage, which is to implement them. I will be watching that process carefully.

Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle. I thank the Minister for her statement. The Minister touched on cultural tourism, which seems to be a growth area, particularly in the North. Given the challenging target of 3% growth, does the marketing plan include any mention of how cultural tourism can be used to attract more visitors to Ireland, particularly the North of Ireland?

We did not touch specifically on that subject, but it is addressed in the 10-point marketing plan. In the short term, as part of the stabilisation phase, we want to reinforce our cultural differences, not just between ourselves, but between ourselves and other places, so that visitors get a different experience here than they would get at home. We can use culture in a positive, rather than a negative, way. Tourism Ireland has engaged with, to use that terrible phrase, both sides of Northern Ireland culture, and it has done so proactively and fairly. Bodies such as the Grand Orange Lodge, as well as people from the Member’s community, recognise that Tourism Ireland has been proactive and is trying to operate in a fair and just way.

I thank the Minister for her statement. Tourism is very important for everyone in Northern Ireland. My thoughts on targets run parallel to those of the Chairman of the Committee for Enterprise, Trade and Investment. Targets must be meaningful, and I see that those for 2010 are quite bullish. We are talking about 3% growth in visitor numbers to Northern Ireland and the Republic this year and about growing total promotable visitors to Northern Ireland by 10%. The Minister also referred to visitor numbers from Great Britain, which we are expecting to return to growth. Are those figures based on last year’s actual performance and last year’s Budget performance, and are they achievable again?

Yes, the targets have been arrived at against the background of what happened this year, and, as I said, independent analysts have indicated how difficult it will be to meet them.

(Mr Deputy Speaker [Mr McClarty] in the Chair)

A steering group was set up that was made up of representatives from Tourism Ireland and the industry at large. That group developed the action plan for GB and for tourism growth in particular.

The tourism industry in Northern Ireland went through a horrendous time for many years. Let us face it, anyone who owned a hotel in Northern Ireland in the 1970s and 1980s found that it was a difficult business to run. However, over the past year, visitors from the Republic of Ireland have helped to cushion the difficulties that we have with the GB market. Indeed, we have seen an increase of more than 30% in visitors coming from the Republic of Ireland, many of whom are coming for the first time. To be honest, when those visitors have got over the barrier of coming to Northern Ireland, and once they have come here and received the hospitality of our tourism industry, I am hopeful that they will return.

The targets are challenging, and I accept what the Member said. However, we need to be positive about tourism, because frankly, as I have said time and time again, it has all the potential to be a key economic driver for Northern Ireland.

I welcome Tourism Ireland’s improved advertising and promotion campaign, and I mentioned already in the Assembly that it has highlighted Carrickfergus Castle in that campaign. Did any discussions take place about improving transport links to maximise the number of tourists coming to Northern Ireland and to the Republic of Ireland?

The transport links were not specifically mentioned, but the Member will know that I will soon be in receipt of the tourism review for Northern Ireland. It is interesting that all the Departments have been involved in that review, including DRD, which was involved in discussing transport links. Therefore, the Member is absolutely right: there is no point in Tourism Ireland selling this part of the world as a good place to come and have a holiday if visitors cannot get to the places that they want to go due to, among other things, the lack of appropriate signage, and so forth. We need a more integrated way of looking at tourism. I await the tourism review with interest, and I look forward to it.

The Member is right about the fact that more places of interest in Northern Ireland have been appearing in Tourism Ireland’s advertising campaign. It even manages to include Fermanagh from time to time. That has nothing to do with me, as he might imagine, but it is important that our iconic places to visit, such as the Giant’s Causeway and the Titanic Quarter, feature in the advertisements. I am glad to say that that is happening now.

I thank the Minister for her statement. Will she give me her assessment of how she feels the Republic of Ireland market has performed? By that I mean the number of tourists who come from the Republic of Ireland.

As I said in response to an earlier question, the Republic of Ireland market has helped to cushion the downturn in the number of visitors coming from the rest of the United Kingdom.

Over the past year, the tourism industry has had a number of highs and lows. It has had the high of seeing the biggest ever increase of visitors coming from the Republic of Ireland. In the first half of the year, that figure increased by 31%, but more importantly, total revenue from the Republic of Ireland rose by 37%. As the Member will know, we have challenging targets to meet in the Programme for Government where not just visitor numbers but spend are concerned. Therefore, those figures encourage me. However, we cannot sit back and say that because more visitors are coming from the Republic of Ireland, the situation is all great and dandy. We need to increase the numbers of visitors from all places who come to Northern Ireland, and that is what Tourism Ireland is focused on.

Go raibh maith agat, a LeasCheann Comhairle. Given the importance of tourism to the economy, is the Minister concerned that the delivery of a number of tourism projects is being held up due to the delay in a number of cross-body groups not being able to draw down the INTERREG IVa funding?

It is not just tourism projects that have been held up because of that delay. Indeed, I took the opportunity to meet with Pat Colgan recently to discuss a number of projects. Some project promoters wrote to me to voice concerns that they had not been able to draw down that money, and I have asked two departmental colleagues to monitor actively what is happening with those applications. They have made themselves known to SEUPB, and they have said that they will work very closely with the body. They have also made themselves known to the different bodies so that they can work with them.

Much of the time, there is a lack of communication between those different bodies. They need to understand what must be done in the first instance, rather than be told about it six months or a year later. I am determined that departmental officials will work with and help SEUPB and the different cross-border bodies so that we can get this over the line. I certainly do not want to lose that extra money for tourism in Northern Ireland.

I thank the Minister for her statement. In response to previous questions, she indicated tourism’s clear economic value, of which we must take advantage, particularly with regard to the number of people who cross the border to shop.

Last week, a friend of mine visited Dublin. She remarked that basic goods, such as milk and bread, are twice the price down South that they are in Northern Ireland.

People cross the border and spend money. Does the Minister intend to try to encourage those people not only to do their shopping but to stay here for a while? If so, what incentives are offered to make that happen?

It is very much my intention to encourage those people to stay. The Northern Ireland Tourist Board has been engaged in campaigns, particularly in the Republic of Ireland, to ask people not only to come up and do their shopping but to take advantage of the marvellous food that is on offer and the short breaks that they can avail themselves of if they want to come up to shop. The board is proactive in that regard. The industry is working hard, particularly in the towns that those shoppers visit. Those towns are in areas of great beauty, and we must take advantage of that.

Many of those people have not been to Northern Ireland for a long time if, indeed, at all. They need to know what is available here. When they are shopping, they can be made aware of everything else that is going on in the tourism industry.

I also welcome the Minister’s statement. I want to ask her two questions.

First, regardless of whether 3% growth in visitor numbers to Northern Ireland and the Republic is challenging, is there not an argument for Tourism Ireland to have a target to increase the number of tourists who come into the Republic of Ireland and who then come to the North? If there is a 3% increase in visitor numbers to Northern Ireland, it is, self-evidently, at a lower threshold than a 3% increase in visitor numbers to the Republic of Ireland. Figures confirm that. Is there not, therefore, an argument to encourage visitors to the South, for whom the Republic of Ireland is the intended limit of their travels, to visit the North and to increase the number of visitors there? There should be differential figures in that regard.

Secondly, can anything more be done to ensure that Tourism Ireland, which, clearly, because of relationships and proximity, has insight into the British tourism market, works with the NITB on the marketing campaigns for which it is responsible in Britain, given that it is responsible for marketing the island as a whole?

I thank the Member for his two questions. He is correct. Let us be honest; there are more flights into Dublin Airport than there are into Belfast, much to my regret. That is a fact. People use Dublin as a gateway. That is why the Northern Ireland Tourist Board has spent a great deal of money on advertising in Dublin Airport. It has upped its game in Dublin. It has now taken a new position in the city centre, which, not long ago, I visited when I was in Dublin for a North/South Ministerial Council meeting.

Therefore, the Member is correct: we need to target people who come to the Republic of Ireland and get them to visit Northern Ireland. Indeed, in 2009, when I was in India, part of the discussion was that if people come that distance, they may visit several places, such as London and Dublin. It is important that we put Belfast — and when I say “Belfast”, I mean all of Northern Ireland — on the map for those people.

I certainly have no difficulty with the NITB working with Tourism Ireland on marketing. As the Member knows, the Tourist Board here deals with the whole island and Tourism Ireland deals with everybody else. Therefore, they have a vested interest to deal proactively. I hope that the new chief executive of Tourism Ireland and the chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board continue to do that.