Tourism industry looks to the East

TOURISM chiefs are targeting high spenders in the Middle East, India and China in a bid to halt the slide in the number of visitors travelling to Ireland.

The bid to tap tourism markets in the Gulf and Asia comes as the numbers of visitors from Britain and the US continues to fall.

Considerable groundwork has already been done through new Irish tourism offices in Shanghai, Mumbai and Dubai, the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee heard yesterday at a meeting attended by tourism organisations.