A new tourism policy launched by Fine Gael yesterday proposes to revitalise a "tired" tourism product and put the emphasis on sport, heritage and activity-based attractions. It also proposes to gain a seat for Ireland on international tourism bodies and bodies concerned with tourism in developing countries.
Tourism numbers had grown but "the Irish tourism product is tired", the party's tourism spokesman, Jimmy Deenihan, said yesterday.
In certain circumstances it was even lacking appeal, he said.
Serious challenges such as lack of infrastructure in the west, which was contributing to the east-west divide in this country, needed to be tackled.
West coast regions had 3.3 million fewer holiday bednights in 2005 compared with 2004, Mr Deenihan said.
The policy, "Irish Tourism - Building a Bright Future", drawn up by Mr Deenihan, a TD for Kerry North, was launched yesterday at Blennerville Windmill visitor attraction near Tralee, during a tour of the constituency by party leader Enda Kenny.
Mr Kenny said Fine Gael believed the tourism product here needed "a complete overhaul".
Among the key proposals are infrastructural developments including the National Conference Centre and Abbey Theatre, a refurbished National Concert Hall and Lansdowne Road Stadium, along with the possibility of a regional conference centre in the Shannon region.
Distinctive tourism products are listed, such as a Christian heritage trail linking major monastic sites, a Viking and Norman heritage cluster of attractions in the southeast and a provincial city breaks programme.
Fine Gael also proposes to seek Unesco world heritage status for an area comprising the Burren, Cliffs of Moher and the Aran Islands and to bring the Rugby World Cup competition to Ireland in 2015.
Relaunching the Tidy Towns competition is also proposed, along with a clustering of tourism products and a significant improvement in signposting.