The All-Ireland tourism campaign, launched last November with great fanfare, has run into possible terminal difficulties with the rejection of the new logo by the Northern Ireland Tourist Board (NITB).
A Northern Ireland Minister, Mr Adam Ingram, yesterday criticised the Minister for Tourism, Dr McDaid, for forcing a change in the logo which had been agreed between the NITB and Bord Failte.
The Fine Gael spokesman on tourism, Mr Bernard Allen, said Dr McDaid's actions had damaged cross-Border co-operation in marketing abroad on an all-island basis. "We now have a ludicrous situation of two logos being used in marketing this island - the logo launched last year and Dr McDaid's `withered shamrock'." A spokeswoman for the NITB said they would retain the old logo "because that is what we bought into". The NITB committed £500,000 to the development of the logo and the subsequent marketing of Ireland as a single tourism brand. It remained to be seen, the spokeswoman said, if the impact of marketing Northern Ireland would be diluted by Bord Failte using a different logo.
A director of Image Now Consultants, Mr Darrel Kavanagh, said the new logo portrayed Ireland as a "deeply religious and backward-looking place". It lacked vitality and energy, and in no way signalled a happy or friendly country which a tourist would like to visit.
The director-general of the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation, Mr Brendan Leahy, said he would not comment one way or another on the artistic merits of the logo. The important issue was the amount of resources devoted by all partners, including the Government, to its promotion.
A spokesman for Dr McDaid could not be reached for comment last night.