REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY McALEESE AT TOURISM IRELAND LUNCH, NEW YORK
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY McALEESE AT TOURISM IRELAND LUNCH, NEW YORK WEDNESDAY, 2 MAY, 2007
Thank you and greetings from an Ireland that is about to enter its most exciting era yet. You will know the story of the Celtic Tiger economy which has transformed the republic into one of the most successful economies in the developed world and you will know the dramatic developments in the peace process which will see a new government in Northern Ireland headed up by Sinn Fein and the DUP. These are nothing short of spectacular times, loaded with potential and powered by a new alchemy made up of partnership, cooperation, collaboration and mutual respect. The focus is on the future and the future is what is revealed when peace and prosperity converge for the first time in centuries.
Our tourism industry which represents the whole island, now enjoys brighter prospects than ever and I especially include the outlook for business from the United States. Visitors from America are always warmly welcomed in Ireland and this year with the announcement of the Open Skies Agreement between Europe and the U.S. there will be even more direct, nonstop flights from America’s gateway cities to Belfast, Dublin, Shannon and now, Ireland West Airport at Knock.
Frequent visitors to Ireland will have seen the changes wrought by prosperity, with many new hotels, restaurants, attractions, galleries, museums, golf courses and facilities that make the tourism experience truly world class. The welcome is still the traditional cead míle fáilte, one hundred thousand welcomes, but now there is a special magic in the air as the gift of peace takes hold in Northern Ireland and a new era of comfortable good neighbourliness characterises North-South relations.
None of this could have been possible without the help and support of our friends in the United States and it is my privilege to express Ireland’s thanks and to acknowledge that the triumph of peace in Ireland is also America’s triumph and something America should take real pride in.
Of course, now the real work begins, to maximize the huge potential and the surge of energy that these precious days are creating. In that regard, our hosts today, Tourism Ireland, have already been doing some pretty remarkable work. Under the Good Friday Agreement, Tourism Ireland was given the task of promoting and marketing the whole island of Ireland overseas. And what a fantastic job they have done in successfully marketing the whole island of Ireland as one great vacation destination.
Tourism Ireland has been both a flagship and a test of cross-border cooperation. It has carried huge responsibility as an early pioneer of the coming, new culture of all-island collaboration, and it has more than vindicated the philosophy of partnership. I am delighted to be able to congratulate its champions and wish them well as the backdrop changes again and for the better.
Just as American investment in Ireland has been increasingly matched by Irish investment in America so too the tourist traffic has become two way. Here in New York, for instance, the number of visitors from Ireland puts us in the top seven in terms of countries of origin of tourists – an amazing statistic when one thinks of the scales involved. What is very clear is that the traditional Irish love affair with the Big Apple is alive and well! It means big business for New York, for the Irish are big spenders and it is no coincidence that the city’s tourism agency, New York and Co, recently opened a promotion office in Dublin for the first time.
Could there be a better indication of the healthy state of ties between Ireland and America and of the considerable benefits that flow both ways from this criss-crossing of the Atlantic by our peoples in their hundreds of thousands? The benefits are not all economic for there is a magic in the Irish-US relationship that is freshened in each generation. It makes us culturally compatible, comfortable in each other’s country, connected through ties of historic kinship and contemporary curiosity.
You are the crucial ambassadors for Ireland, the people who provoke the interest and facilitate the travel that brings the business traveler and the tourist to our shores. You have helped rewrite Ireland’s story and I hope, with your help, that we will welcome many more of your clients to visit the Ireland that is at last revealing the potential so many of your Irish emigrant forbears knew it had, but did not live to see. We are a fortunate and blessed generation, we see it, we live it and, with your help, we sustain it.
Thank you