Scottish tourism a little green over Irish investment

package to transform tourism over the next six years.

While the Scottish Tourist Board is trying to elicit more public money

for an ambitious exercise to overhaul our own industry, Mr Charlie

McCreevy, the Irish Tourism Minister, has promised solid financial and

logistical support for all aspects of the Irish trade.

A large chunk of the new money for Ireland -- #369m -- has come from

European coffers, with the private sector committing #199m, and the

Irish Government #84m.

The total purse will be split into five areas: #125m on natural and

cultural tourism, including waterways and national monuments; #287m on

product development, including individual tourism projects; #124m on

marketing; #110m on training, and #5m on technical assistance.

The Irish have already set and met a series of ambitious targets for

the industry between 1988 and last year, almost doubling revenue and

boosting the number of visitors from 2,090,000 to 3,110,000.

The targets were drawn up by the Government and the national tourism

body, Bord Failte. They managed to reverse years of decline and

stagnation and are now acknowldeged as having one of the most successful

tourism operations in Europe.

Mr Sean Gorman, spokesman for the Irish Department of Tourism and

Trade, said yesterday that the Government placed the highest value on

the industry, and acknowledged its role in the country's economy. Last

year, almost 8% of the workforce were employed in the tourism sector,

and it accounts for over 7% of the GNP.

''Tourism rates very highly in the pecking order of sectors to be

developed,'' Mr Gorman said. ''It is seen by the Government as having

significant growth potential. It rates very highly in the whole approach

of developing the economy here.''

A spokesman for the STB said it must be acknowledged that the industry

in Scotland had rallied behind the new national strategy to improve the

performance of the Scottish trade in the coming years.

However, he added: ''We believe we have a substantial marketing job to

do on behalf of Scotland. We believe we can't do that job on the

resources we have at the moment.

''It would be naive of us to expect that additional resources should

come from the Scottish Office without us articulating a case. That's a

case we are making at the moment.''

At present, the STB has an #8m marketing budget and gets #17.2m from

the Scottish Office.

The spokesman said, however, that Scotland had handled some aspects of

the industry better than the Irish and still attracted more visitors.

''The Irish are often presented as an example of what Scotland ought

to be doing, but the Irish have not always got everything right.''

Privately, tourism representatives in Scotland believe Ireland holds

an important trump card in its ability to negotiate in Europe as an

independent country.

''The chief executive of its tourist board can pick up the telephone

and speak to Mr Albert Reynolds, or directly to a Tourism Minister,''

said one Scottish industry analyst. ''In Scotland, tourist officials

have to work within the framework of the Government as it is currently

constituted.''

The Irish are also acknowledged at being excellent players of the

European game.

A spokesman for the Scottish Office confirmed it was paying #17.2m to

the STB at the moment, but pointed out that funding for tourism came

from local enterprise and local authority sources as well.