§ Mr. Kenneth Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what steps he is taking to convince people in the rest of the United Kingdom that Northern Ireland is an excellent tourist centre.
§ Mr. ConcannonStatutory responsibility for promoting Northern Ireland's tourist interest in the United Kingdom and overseas falls to the Northern Ireland Tourist Board. The British market is very important to Northern Ireland tourism and the board, which is represented in London by Department of Commerce staff in the Ulster Office, has three full-time area managers operating out of Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow. Their primary function is to inform the British travel trade and the tour operators in particular about the tourist attractions of Northern Ireland, especially in the field of activity holidays such as angling and cruising.
The years of disturbance have offered little opportunity to develop the very fine tourist potential of Northern Ireland, but I have no doubt that improvements in the security situation will be followed by a tourist revival.