While tourist bookings from the US for early in the year looked good, there had been a downturn in bookings after March, probably because of the threat of war, the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Mr O'Donoghue, has said.
Key marketplaces had to be closely monitored and a contingency plan had been drawn up to divert tourism marketing money away from North America in the event of war in Iraq, the Minister said. He pointed out that the situation was being closely monitored by a tourism review group at present.
Asked if he was concerned that the scale of anti-war protests here would turn off potential US visitors, the Minister said that he did not think protesters intended to send out signals that Americans were unwelcome here.
But he wanted to stress the importance of such visitors to Irish tourism, generating revenue of about €750 million: "I'm not going to decry the protesters, or interfere with their right to protest, but the truth is that America is a great friend of Ireland and has been responsible for creating huge employment in this country."
US visitors had been coming to Ireland "in their hundreds of thousands", and they spent twice as much as other tourists, since they tended to go for quality goods and services, he added.
Indications for business in the first quarter of this year looked good, but there had been a "considerable softening" in bookings for the period after March, because of the war threat.
Coming into the current year, the industry was very much aware of a volatile situation ahead and was ready to be flexible and to respond to market changes.
The Minister was speaking to reporters in Caherciveen.