Tourism Ireland is to complement the €3 million marketing money announced on Monday for the home and overseas markets by Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Mr O'Donoghue, with an additional €1.5 million.
It was also beginning an "unprecedented" high-season campaign of discounting holiday prices.
The all-Ireland marketing body whose task is to attract overseas visitors was beginning the campaign of discounting prices "more or less immediately", Mr Paul O'Toole, its chief executive said yesterday in Killarney where the board was meeting with operators in "the home of Irish tourism".
It was part of Tourism Ireland's policy to move board meetings around to meet with the industry first hand. This meeting had been planned six months ago. The next away meeting will be in Coleraine in September.
The aggressive campaign to attract more holidaymakers into Ireland was being put together with tour operators, ferry companies, airlines, hotels, self-catering providers "and across the board", Mr O'Toole said. Such a campaign offering discounts was "unprecedented" at the height of the season, he added. "It is an aggressive response in what is a difficult season."
Mr Andrew Coppel, chairman of Tourism Ireland, said a major variable this year was late booking among consumers and this trend looked set to continue.
"Consumer confidence is returning slowly, but consumers are price sensitive and have adopted a wait and see holiday booking pattern and so lead-in times have been dramatically reduced."
While some sectors had been badly affected, notably the escorted coach tour business, there were positive signs, Mr Coppel said. "Some of our best prospects include Spain, Italy, France, Canada, and our biggest market, the UK. We are feeling a lot more confident about Canada. Scandinavia too is looking healthy," Mr Coppel said.
Contrary to some reports, Tourism Ireland had a third of its marketing budgets left for 2002, he said, and this was being spent on "carefully considered and extensive promotional campaigns in key markets, including press trips, trade shows and direct marketing".