SPECIFIC ALLOCATION NEEDED FOR SHANNON

Huge regional tourism opportunity must be supported, IHF states

The Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) today urged the Government and regional tourism development bodies to allocate a specific regional marketing fund to the Shannon region, in order to exploit the substantial tourism potential now available through increased air routes to the area. Describing the launch of Ryanair's latest European base at Shannon as a "momentous occasion", the Federation states that the promotion of the planned 'Ireland-West' tourism brand in key overseas destinations will be key to gaining maximum tourism opportunities from these new air routes. The IHF maintains that total air routes into the Shannon region will be increased by almost 200% this summer, however, it warned that whilst new air access routes are the lifeline to ensure visitors are attracted to Ireland, the road and rail infrastructure from Shannon must be enhanced to ensure people can move around the country quickly and easily.

According to Richard Bourke, President, IHF, the 14 routes into Shannon now operated by Ryanair, and new flights from US destinations from American Airlines, now warrant joint State and industry marketing initiatives to entice people to visit Ireland from these destinations.

He states, "The US alone offers Ireland tremendous tourism growth. In 2004, 976,000 visitors, or 15% of all overseas visitors to Ireland, came from North America. We anticipate that with increased routes this could grow by 50% to 1.5 million over the next 5 years. In addition, European visitor numbers to Ireland totalled 1.58 million in 2004 - with these new routes into Shannon, there is significant potential to grow that number. However, a number of key measures must be introduced to support their marketing and promotion abroad. International tourism has become fiercely competitive in recent years, so a focused and unified marketing strategy is crucial to ensuring that we effectively compete to win overseas visitors."

Specific measures that the IHF is calling for include:

• A specific Shannon region marketing fund to be allocated, which would support the emerging 'Ireland-West' tourism brand abroad and help to market the new air routes into the region;

• Aer Lingus to give increased exposure to promoting US-Shannon fares in the US;
  A focused marketing campaign in all key overseas destinations that have direct flights into Shannon;
  
• Urgent acceleration of regional road upgrade programme to include finishing the Dublin - Limerick - Shannon motorway/dual-carriageway and the Limerick - Shannon - Galway dual-carriageway.

Mr Bourke continues, "The emerging 'Ireland-West' tourism brand is a very welcome development to boost tourism to the Shannon region. It's great to see the industry and official tourism agencies coming together under one umbrella brand to make best use of combined resources and ideas."

David Fitzgerald, Chairman, IHF Shannon branch, described the opening of Ryanair's European base at Shannon as a tremendous opportunity for the region: "This initiative provides an immense tourism opportunity for the region that cannot be lost. It will require significant Government and industry backing in the form of marketing funding, tourism strategy and execution, if we are to see real benefits in the form of new visitors to the region. We are all aware of the decline in regional tourism in recent months - this new development provides the chance to regain some lost ground in attracting European visitors to the Shannon region."

ENDS

For information:

Niamh Boylan / Siobhan Molloy Tel: 01 6760168

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