North/South Ministerial Council: Tourism Sectoral Format

Part of Ministerial Statement – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 12:15 pm on 28 June 2010.

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Photo of Arlene Foster Arlene Foster DUP 12:15, 28 June 2010

I wondered which Member would be the first to mention England’s demise in the World Cup; full points to Mr Maskey.

I do not have a breakdown of the figures for the amount that will be spent on marketing in GB, North America and Germany. However, GB is our main tourist market, and I know that when I speak to the chief executive of Tourism Ireland he will tell me that, because of that, he concentrates heavily on it not only because of the direct flight access but because of the strong ferry links. We are seeing more and more emphasis on car touring, for example. It is important that we look at all the ways in which we can get visitors to come to Northern Ireland. People have been telling me how much they have enjoyed staying at home in Northern Ireland over the past two to three weeks because of the good weather. However, we also want to see more people coming into Northern Ireland to enjoy what is going on.