The Minister for Tourism has said that while a record number of visitors are expected to take holidays in Ireland this year there is increased concern among tourists about prices here.
Mr O'Donoghue said he remained concerned about the perception that there was poor value for money in the industry and warned of increased competition from holiday destinations in eastern Europe.
Referring to the scenes of public drunkenness in Dublin on St Patrick's Day, he said: "Any riotous or uproarious behaviour does not present a good image of the country and is of no assistance whatsoever. That's very clear."
While visitors tended to avoid such occasions "like the plague", the Minister said he believed Ireland compared favourably with most European destinations "in terms of the individual coming in having a peaceful time".
However, speaking ahead of an EU conference in Dublin Castle today on tourism, he said that there was an increasing level of concern among visitors to Ireland about value for money.
"We know that in recent years the number of people who have not been satisfied in terms of value for money has increased from one-third to two-thirds. Obviously that is a cause of some concern," he told The Irish Times.
While welcoming confirmation from the Irish Restaurants Association that it will re-introduce its "value menu" initiative this summer, he warned of increasing competition from the former Eastern bloc states.
"I have said that the days of presenting a John Hinde photograph with a donkey and two baskets of turf thrown over his back will not sell Ireland any more."
However, Mr O'Donoghue said he was encouraged by figures which showed that more than 85 per cent of visitors "expressed themselves satisfied or very satisfied with the holiday experience in Ireland".
He said the Government was expecting more tourists than ever to visit Ireland this year. "We have set targets of increasing the number of visitors to the country by 4 per cent to 6.6 million approximately. That would represent a record for Ireland." The Government's overall target is to increase the number of visitors to 10 million by 2012 and increase foreign tourism revenues to €6 billion, he said.
Mr O'Donoghue said the Government was "a long way down the road" to the completion of a national conference centre in Dublin in 2007. He said four "mostly Irish" groups had made serious expressions of interest in the initiative.
"It is anticipated that it will result in an additional 30,000 visitors at a minimum . . . and has the capacity to generate revenue in excess of €50 million. Dublin would be a new venue and as such would be an attractive change for annual conferences which are already in being. Therefore we anticipate that in its first decade it will be a resounding success."
Mr O'Donoghue said the industry had recovered from a period of "great difficulty" that began with the foot-and-mouth crisis in 2001. "Irish tourism and the industry showed a great resilience which reflected itself last year in an increase in the number of visitors coming to the country despite the fact that the numbers visiting Europe generally was well down. Last year we estimate that there was an increase in the number of total visitors to Ireland in the order of 3 to 4 per cent."
Mr O'Donoghue said he was expecting a major pick-up in US business this year following a recovery in 2003. "All the indications from the industry are that we are right in our predictions." However, he said the Government was also concentrating on the domestic and European market after double-digit growth last year in the numbers of visitors from France and Spain.
"Our objective is to grow the domestic market to around three million holidays, which would generate around € 1.13 billion in revenue." He said this would imply a growth rate this year in the order of 5 per cent.
Of the European market, he said: "There are 315 million people on our doorstep. One of the big difficulties we've had for years is that we have been unable to really get into the Continental market. Last year we had a major concentration of resources in marketing on the continent and that certainly yielded dividends with all of the main continental markets being up."
