Tourism in Northern Ireland and Its Economic Impact and Benefits
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House of Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Committee Tourism in Northern Ireland and its Economic Impact and Benefits Third Report of Session 2006–07 Report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence Ordered by The House of Commons to be printed 28 February 2007 HC 119 [Incorporating HC 1687-i, Session 2005-06 Published on 15 March 2007 by authority of the House of Commons London: The Stationery Office Limited £0.00 The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Northern Ireland Office (but excluding individual cases and advice given by the Crown Solicitor); and other matters within the responsibilities of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (but excluding the expenditure, administration and policy of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Northern Ireland and the drafting of legislation by the Office of the Legislative Counsel). Current membership Sir Patrick Cormack, MP (Conservative, South Staffordshire) (Chairman) Mr David Anderson, MP (Labour, Blaydon) Rt. Hon John Battle, MP (Labour, Leeds West) Mr Gregory Campbell, MP (Democratic Unionist Party, East Londonderry) Rosie Cooper, MP (Labour, West Lancashire) Mr Christopher Fraser, MP (Conservative, South West Norfolk) Mr John Grogan, MP (Labour, Selby) Mr Stephen Hepburn, MP (Labour, Jarrow) Lady Hermon, MP (Ulster Unionist Party, North Down) Dr Alasdair McDonnell, MP (SDLP, Belfast South) Mr Denis Murphy, (Labour, Wansbeck) Mr Stephen Pound, MP (Labour, Ealing North) Mr Sammy Wilson, MP (Democratic Unionist Party, East Antrim) Powers The Committee is one of the departmental select committees, the powers of which are set out in House of Commons Standing Orders, principally in SO No 152. These are available on the Internet via www.parliament.uk. Publications The Reports and evidence of the Committee are published by The Stationery Office by Order of the House. All publications of the Committee (including press notices) are on the Internet at: www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/northern_ireland_affairs.cfm Committee staff The current staff of the Committee are Mr James Rhys (Clerk), Dr Aileen O’Neill (Committee Specialist), Paul Derrett (Committee Assistant), Jennifer Kelly (Secretary), Laura Kibby (Media Officer), Jim Lawford (Senior Office Clerk). Contacts All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, House of Commons, 7 Millbank, London SW1P 3JA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 2172/3; the Committee’s email address is [email protected] 1 Contents Report Page 1 Introduction 3 2 Structures 6 Northern Ireland Tourist Board 6 Tourism Ireland 6 Regional Tourism Partnerships 7 District Councils 8 Effectiveness of structures 8 Improving structures 9 Impact of the Review of Public Administration 11 Funding of RTPs 12 Departmental reporting requirements 13 3 Economic Impact of Tourism 15 4 Marketing of Northern Ireland 18 The Signature projects 21 5 Tourist Industry Development 25 Development of tourist industry infrastructure 25 Government support for tourist industry development 27 Planning constraints on industry development 28 Skills and Training 30 Transport Infrastructure 33 Events tourism 34 Cross-border cooperation 35 6 Conclusions 37 Conclusions and recommendations 38 Formal minutes 43 List of written evidence 45 List of unprinted written evidence 47 Reports from the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee since 2005 48 3 1 Introduction 1. As a result of the Troubles, Northern Ireland has been slow to develop its tourist industry. Few tourists visited Northern Ireland other than to visit friends and relatives during the 1970s and 1980s, and most of these were either from Great Britain or the Republic of Ireland, but after the Provisional IRA ceasefire in 1994, the numbers of international tourist visitors began slowly to grow. Mr Paul O’Toole, Chief Executive of Tourism Ireland, told the Committee in evidence during this inquiry that: “Northern Ireland tourism is coming from a different base than the Republic of Ireland or indeed England, Scotland and Wales. There is a great desire within the northern industry to grow and there is a pressure on us – and indeed the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and government – to support that growth. The growth in Northern Ireland has been excellent over the last few years.[…] that growth has started to moderate now. I think, looking forward, if we are really engaged on how the industry needs to be taken forward, it is how we get it back into a position of growth and above average growth. […] It has to be about a concerted action plan with the investment, led by the private sector, and supported by the public sector in a variety of ways”.1 2. In 2002, the Committee for Enterprise, Trade and Investment at the Northern Ireland Assembly embarked on an inquiry into tourism, but it had not completed its work when the Assembly was suspended in October 2002. In the course of its inquiry, the Assembly Committee organised conferences in Omagh and Coleraine that focussed on the role, responsibilities and obligations of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board (NITB) and Tourism Ireland; threats to tourism development; the interaction of organisations involved in tourism; access to Northern Ireland; identifying a “winning” Northern Ireland product; effective marketing; funding sources and needs; and training for the tourist industry. 3. This Committee decided on 29 March 2006 to undertake an inquiry into Tourism and its Economic Impact and Benefits, specifically to examine: “the nature of tourism in Northern Ireland, its impact on and importance for the overall economy, and the effectiveness of measures taken by Government and other relevant agencies to develop, promote and support the marketing of Northern Ireland as a tourist destination.” 4. We have endeavoured to build on the work of the former Assembly Committee to identify ways in which Northern Ireland can maximise its tourist potential. Our recommendations are addressed to the Northern Ireland Office, which took back responsibility for tourism in Northern Ireland when the power-sharing executive was suspended in October 2002. However, this Report is published at a time of some uncertainty in Northern Ireland’s politics, and the Committee hopes that a power-sharing executive will be restored by 26 March 2007 in full accordance with the St Andrews Agreement.2 A restored power-sharing executive would resume responsibility for tourism, 1 Q 310 2 Northern Ireland (St Andrews Agreement) Act 2006 4 and accordingly, responsibility for scrutiny of this policy area would revert to the Committees of a restored Assembly. 5. Should the timetable agreed at St Andrews proceed, this matter will disappear from our remit on 26 March, and our recommendations will stand addressed to each of the Departments of the restored executive with responsibility for matters affecting tourism. We have no authority to expect a formal response to our Report from these Departments, as we would from a Whitehall or United Kingdom Department, but we hope that the conclusions that we have reached and the evidence that we have taken will inform the decisions taken by those in the executive with the responsibility for ensuring that Northern Ireland is able to tap the undoubted tourist potential that it has. We also hope that our work will be of use to those Committees of the Northern Ireland Assembly charged with the scrutiny of the various Departments which have responsibility for matters affecting tourism. 6. In the course of the inquiry, we took formal evidence from a number of bodies responsible for marketing Northern Ireland as a tourist destination and for developing tourist provision. Representatives of each of the Regional Tourism Partnerships, the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and Tourism Ireland all appeared before the Committee in public session in Westminster. We also took evidence from representatives of those engaged in the tourist industry, meeting the Chairman and Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Tourist Industry Confederation. The Chartered Institute of Marketing Northern Ireland and Professor Stephen Boyd, Professor of Tourism from the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at the University of Ulster gave us the benefit of their insights into the challenges facing the tourist industry in Northern Ireland. Finally, we took formal evidence from Maria Eagle MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Northern Ireland Office with responsibility for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI), which takes the lead on tourism. 7. During the course of the inquiry the Committee made an extensive visit to Northern Ireland. Not only did this provide a valuable opportunity to visit each of the five “signature projects” that are being developed to give Northern Ireland “international stand-out”3, but it also provided an opportunity to meet informally a wide range of individuals involved in the tourist industry. The Committee is grateful to the representatives of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, Tourism Ireland and the Regional Tourism Partnerships who made time to meet us during our visit. We are also grateful to those working in businesses connected with tourism who came to meet us during our visit to discuss the challenges they faced. We would like to thank the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and the Department for Enterprise Trade and Investment for helping to put together the programme for the visit. 8. As the Republic of Ireland has developed a world class tourist industry which is far more advanced than that in Northern Ireland, we also visited Dublin. We were anxious to ascertain why the Republic of Ireland had done so well in capitalising on its tourist potential and to try to identify lessons that could be learned by the tourist industry in Northern Ireland. We also wished to assess the effectiveness of Tourism Ireland in 3 The NITB’s five signature projects are discussed further at paragraphs 67-75.