Northern Ireland launches tourism drive

Northern Ireland tonight launched a tourism offensive to try to win back trade lost by the foot-and-mouth crisis.

Stormont enterprise minister Sir Reg Empey said the only way to restore confidence in tourism was by counteracting negative and ‘‘often inaccurate’’ reports on the impact of the disease on the province.

He announced details of the Tourism Recovery Plan in Belfast to an audience of travel trade staff from the US who are on a fact-finding missing in the province.

The power-sharing Executive has provided an extra £1 million to help the Northern Ireland Tourist Board conduct the drive.

‘‘The key word is confidence. The only way to build confidence in our tourism industry is to communicate directly with our three key customers - the consumer, the travel trade and the media,’’ said the minister.

Sir Reg revealed last weekend that a report on the impact of the foot-and-mouth outbreak had shown serious ignorance among Americans.

Some believed there would be no food and they would catch the disease if they visited the UK.

In extreme cases, he said ‘‘people thought their hands and feet would drop off’’.

With Northern Ireland now officially a disease-free area and meat and dairy exports resuming, the minister said now was the right time to launch the recovery plan.

Its aim was to ‘‘limit damage in the immediate term and to restore consumer confidence’’.

There would be a media and travel trade blitz across the US and Canada, trade and media receptions in Paris, Frankfurt and Zurich, a television advertising campaign in Scotland and trade and media launches in Manchester and Liverpool.

Within the island of Ireland, TV, radio and newspaper advertising will be run, he said.

‘‘The Recovery Plan swings into action tomorrow. It will require the support and commitment of everyone in the tourism sector who, together with my colleagues in the NITB, will work tirelessly to ensure its success, ‘‘ said Sir Reg.