{"id":233447,"date":"2026-01-08T02:49:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T02:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/233447\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T02:49:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T02:49:13","slug":"minister-promises-new-era-for-tourism-with-e400m-investment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/233447\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister promises ‘new era’ for tourism with \u20ac400m investment"},"content":{"rendered":"

An investment announced on Wednesday will herald a \u201cnew era\u201d for the tourism sector, a minister has said.<\/p>\n

Minister for Tourism Peter Burke unveiled a \u20ac4.7 billion \u201cwar chest\u201d which is due to be invested in Ireland\u2019s enterprise sector over the next five years as part of the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment\u2019s capital plan for 2026 to 2030.<\/p>\n

He said it is \u201ccritical we\u2019re viewing tourism as centrally important to government strategy\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Burke added that there has been a lack of \u201cpolitical direction\u201d over a number of years that saw \u201cboots on the ground\u201d leaving key markets.<\/p>\n

He said about \u20ac400 million would be allocated to the tourism sector, which would be used to fund a number of measures to boost the industry.<\/p>\n

He said the department is \u201creally looking at\u201d investing through strategic aviation routes, including to the UAE and India, adding that while they may not generate \u201csignificant numbers\u201d of tourists to Ireland, they are \u201cvery high value\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"PeterPeter Burke said there will be a focus on upskilling firms to be \u2018digitally smart\u2019 (Bairbre Holmes\/PA)<\/p>\n

More personnel will be deployed to the UAE, Canada, and the India and Asia Pacific region to promote Ireland as a destination.<\/p>\n

Lengthening the tourism season in Ireland in order to spread numbers across the year is another priority, with Mr Burke saying it should run \u201cfrom St Brigid\u2019s Day right out to Halloween and beyond\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said there will also be a focus on upskilling firms to be \u201cdigitally smart\u201d, in particular as 60% of people now use AI when mapping out their holiday itineraries.<\/p>\n

Mr Burke also said there would be a focus on developing skills \u201cto ensure that there are significant career pathways in our tourism sector\u201d.<\/p>\n

The minister said around 230,000 people are employed in the tourism sector, with about 46,000 small and medium-sized businesses involved in the industry.<\/p>\n

He said while there has been a \u201creturn to increasing numbers\u201d in recent months, it is \u201cvital\u201d the tourism industry has a good year in 2025 and that his department is hoping for between six and seven per cent growth over the next five years.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Government<\/p>\n

Ireland<\/p>\n

Government must decide \u2018collectively\u2019 about its use of X \u2013 minister<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

While Mr Burke said Ireland is a \u201cvery strong location\u201d for North America and the Asia and Pacific region, the country is \u201cunder pressure\u201d in the European market.<\/p>\n

Promoting Ireland\u2019s \u201cauthentic artisan food\u201d will be key, he said, in making Ireland a more attractive destination for European visitors.<\/p>\n

He said they are often \u201cvery impressed\u201d with the quality of produce in Ireland, compared with \u201cwhat they would have heard or what view they would have created in their mind before they have come here\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An investment announced on Wednesday will herald a \u201cnew era\u201d for the tourism sector, a minister has said.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,61,60],"class_list":["post-233447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}