The Irish Tourist Industry Confederation (ITIC) has brought a welcome breath of fresh air to the debate about spreading the benefits of tourism, now worth an annual £6 billion. The case has been made by Government, notably by the Minister for Tourism, Dr McDaid, that some places have too many visitors for comfort and others have too few. In the interests of regional development, the argument goes, resources should be used to direct tourists where they have not gone before.
ITIC quite rightly takes issue with this. Our visitors cannot be expected to have the slightest interest in Ireland's regional development. They will travel to the place of their own choosing. They cannot be expected to go where they may not have a good time but will have made an economic contribution to a part of Ireland which attracts few tourists. As ITIC says, the policy approach must be market-led.
ITIC's consultants address the question of congestion in popular areas like Killarney - sometimes also used in the argument to distribute tourists elsewhere. The consultants conclude that, relatively speaking, Ireland's tourism mass is not at all concentrated. In England, they say, London is very much more dominant. Amsterdam figures in Dutch tourism in a way that Dublin does not begin to dominate the Irish market.
The summer congestion problem in Killarney is undeniable. However, ITIC says this has more to do with a lack of infrastructure investment and poor (or no) visitor and traffic management. ITIC adds that this is a problem that should be addressed by local authorities. The answer is not to argue for tourists to be shunted to other locations.
Every country has its key visitor attractions and this is a feature of tourism everywhere. It is not realistic that tourism be evenly spread across a national territory. The kind of infrastructure necessary to support tourism cannot be provided everywhere. Moreover, the private sector has repeatedly demonstrated that it prefers to invest in popular locations. Even if it were possible, redirecting tourist into locations which are unsuitable and unprepared, is neither economically or environmentally desirable.
Internationally, tourism is an intensively competitive business. The foot-and-mouth outbreak has given Ireland's competitors an advantage. It is probably impossible to quantify how much it has cost the industry so far this year. Aspirations to more even regional development must not be at the expense of existing centres of tourism. These are key national assets and we downgrade them at our peril. If we are to play successfully in the international arena, we must field our best team.