We should bear in mind that local tourism means over one thousand Guest Houses and Bed and Breakfast homes, over five hundred self-catering units and up to fifty Youth Hostels, as well as one hundred and thirty Hotels and countless restaurants. It has huge importance for employment and for family income. We in the Executive are playing our part. The Executive has made additional resources available to the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, similar actions have been taken across the border to pursue the international tourist market and to reassure potential visitors that we are very much back in business. In addition the Executive has established an inter-departmental group to examine if it is possible to devise what it is possible to do by way of financial support to the businesses that make up the industry.
Tourism is one of our key industries.
We intend to have an agreed, market-focused strategy for tourism in place by October 2001 that will be taken forward in conjunction with the new North South Tourism. Ireland for Tourism purposes will be marketed overseas as the entire island. It will be a first, a very important first. Our Hotel and Guest House industry will benefit from this strategy as we work to increase the number of visitors to Ireland, both North and South. This region will benefit from it.