News
Welcome to the News section!
Tourism Strategy for Jobs Martin
Last updated on 10 Feb, 2011
Summary:
The tourism sector is an integral part of Fianna Fáil’s jobs strategy. Employment and how we create it must be at the heart of this election campaign. Yesterday I spoke about science, technology and innovation and how this can be harnessed to increase employment.
Today, Fianna Fáil is talking about tourism and the arts and their economic potential and their role in supporting and creating jobs.
We recognise that the tourism industry is a labour-intensive sector that will provide job opportunities and foreign revenue earnings as the economy recovers. Our priority now is to continue to invest, upgrade and promote the tourism sector in order to take advantage of recovery.
Fianna Fáil’s objective is to increase visitor numbers to 8 million by 2015, which will have the potential to deliver up to 15,000 extra jobs directly in the sector.
We will work to maximise the economic and social potential of the tourism industry as a key factor in Ireland's export-led economic recovery.
Fianna Fáil will:
•Seek to maximise the number of overseas visitors through competitive airport and port charges, competitive and tourist-friendly immigration and visa arrangements, and cooperative marketing support programmes with air and sea carriers.
•Continue to seek opportunities to deliver better value for money through the international and domestic marketing budgets by focusing on the markets most likely to deliver growth, using innovative marketing campaigns and programmes and greater use of e-marketing.
•Help tourism businesses to reduce their cost bases and get access to appropriate levels of credit, especially working capital.
•Position Ireland as an important cultural and heritage tourism destination, by building synergies between the tourism and culture communities, developing the work of Culture Ireland and enhancing public access to our built heritage, attractions and monuments.
•Support Tourism Ireland in coordinating ‘The Gathering 2012’ as a major initiative to encourage people of Irish heritage from all over the world to visit Ireland in 2012, with a range of special programmes on offer.
•Deepen North/South tourism cooperation, including all-island international tourism marketing through Tourism Ireland and the North/South Ministerial Council, and complementary cooperation between Britain and Ireland, including cooperation on statistics and supporting measures to facilitate movement of visitors across the Common Travel Area.
•Facilitate the participation of the tourist industry, both in the private and public sectors, in programmes of Labour Activation Measures, building on the changed profile of unemployment and the advantages of enhancing the visitor experience through the Failte brand.
We also recognise that Ireland’s arts and cultural sectors remains an important source of jobs in their own right, as well as contributing to tourism and other economic sectors.
Ireland’s unique culture has long played a key role in defining us as a people and promoting a positive view of ‘Irishness’ around the world.
Fianna Fáil values the positive contribution that a thriving arts and cultural sector makes to Irish society as a whole and is particularly conscious of the potential of the sector to provide opportunities for self-expression and participation that can help lift people's spirits in a time of economic difficulty.
Fianna Fáil will:
•Ensure that the arts and culture sector continues to be represented at the Cabinet table.
•Work to maintain employment levels in the sector.
•Continue to increase visitor numbers to our museums, galleries and other cultural centres, through year-round promotions and special initiatives.
•Build on Ireland's cultural brand abroad through the work of Culture Ireland – especially in the United States.
•Ensure that a comprehensive commemorative programme is in place for the 2016 celebrations.
•Extend the Section 481 Film Investment relief to 2016 to maintain Ireland’s attractiveness as a location for film production in an increasingly competitive international environment and protect and grow the number of direct and indirect jobs supported by the industry.
•Continue the digitisation programmes of key historic papers and collections will continue and, regionally, we will continue to invest to support the cultural tourism product, especially in the use and deployment of smart technologies.