Summary of ideas submitted in the Tourism category…

• Increase exit tax at airports during school holidays.
• Increase public awareness of visiting rights to historic houses.
• Install public toilets and get rid of anti-social behaviour on boardwalks
• Introduce a scheme to employ people to tidy old graves.
• Introduce ‘right to roam’ legislation in all mountain and coastal districts to promote walking tourism.
• Invest in eco tourism.
• Ireland is not making much use of our natural assets when it comes to the area of adventure tourism. Reduce ‘red tape’ when setting up a company. Consider setting up Government-owned insurance companies offering cover at a reasonable price.
• It would be ideal if Ireland and the UK joined Schengen - encourage tourism.
• Job sharing should be the norm
• Jobseekers should be encouraged to do voluntary work.
• Landlords should be made responsible for keeping their shop fronts in a respectable condition even if they are vacant.
• Launch a ‘Genealogy Month’ for tourists during which they have free access to births, marriages and death records and any of the genealogical records that are charged for by the state.
• Launch a ‘Green Shoots’ media campaign which would report weekly on good news stories and business successes. This would give reassurance to people that recessions pass and help boost Ireland’s image abroad.
• Launch a campaign to get more middle-class Chinese people to holiday in Ireland.
• Launch a national parks scheme similar to that in the US
• Launch a strategy to make Ireland a destination of choice for cruise ships.
• Launch a ’swap holiday homes’ internet site
• Launch an advertising campaign to encourage people not to throw litter out the windows of cars/on the street. Schools should stress the importance to children of not littering. Everyone should be asked to clean up outside their own property.
• Launch an Oprah Winfrey-style show to promote Irish tourism in the US.
• Let tourists reclaim duty as well as VAT on alcohol, cigarettes and hotel accommodation
• Limit the size of buses that are allowed on are road
• Litter campaign
• Low cost airlines and hotels/accommodation providers work together and sell package holidays to Ireland
• Luxury and other travel coaches can be taxed further so that travellers pay to use services once they visit Ireland.
• Make flights into Ireland tax free.
• Make holidaying in Ireland more competitive.
• Make holidaying in Ireland tax deductible for the next five years to Irish citizens.
• Make Leitrim a duty free zone.
• Make tourist websites more user friendly - more options of languages, Standardise hotel accommodation and improve road signs.
• Mark road speed signs in different colours.
• Market ’singles and their dogs’ holiday packages
• Market cheap Irish holiday deals for Irish passport holders living abroad.
• Market Ireland as a destination for Campervan holidays.
• Market Ireland as a destination for electric bicycle holidays.
• Market our bike road-racing heritage and develop tourist packages around our major road races.