Government must revise its targets - Tourism 2025 policy falls short

IT WAS just a little over a year ago that Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tourism Minister Paschal Donohoe stood outside the gracious facade of Kilkenny Castle to unveil the Government’s new tourism policy, entitled ‘People, Place and Policy — Growing Tourism to 2025’.

The new policy sets out a range of objectives and aims to grow tourism over the next decade so that, by 2025, revenue from 10m overseas visits will increase to €5bn, enabling employment in the sector to rise to 250,000.

The tourism policy statement has three main targets to be achieved by 2025. They include revenue growth from €3.5bn to €5bn, employment to rise from 200,000 to 250,000 and overseas visits to grow from 7.6m annually to 10m.