TOURISM IS SWEDEN'S FASTEST GROWING INDUSTRY SECTOR

Governments in developed countries are increasingly beginning to recognise the importance of tourism to their economies and so, I decided to take a look at what's happening in Sweden. The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth publish a very comprehensive data set annually on the effects of tourism on the economy, employment, volumes, behaviour and supply and demand. The most recent report 'Tourism in Sweden' contains some interesting facts as follows:

• Total turnover for tourism in Sweden rose by over 6% to SEK 251.7 billion (about €29 billion)
• There are more employees in tourism (160,000) than in the following major companies combined: Ericsson, Volvo AB and sunsidiaries, Volvo Cars, Saab Group, Husqvarna, Scania, ABB, Scandvik, Skanskam TeliaSonera, AtlasCopco, SCA & AstraZeneca (155,000)
• The industry's ability to boost employment in recent years has assumed significant importance. It increased by over 35% in the past ten years while the numbers working in agriculture, forestry and fishing have declined by 20% over the same period
• Tourism is the only export sector bringing direct VAT to the Treasury. VAT on foreign visitors' consumption increased by almost 150% since 2000 (from SEK 8.1 billion to SEK 13.6 billion)
• Between 2000 and 2009, the export value of tourism increased by 130% compared with an increase of just 43% in Sweden's total exports of goods and services
• Tourism's export value has more than doubled in the last ten years and its export value as a percentage of total exports of goods and services has risen from 3.9% to 6.2%

Interestingly, there is no such report published annually here. While the CSO's Tourism Trends Report 2008 is the nearest equivalent, it excludes any comparision with the performance of other sectors of the economy. If a more robust data set was available on Irish tourism, I believe we would see much more effective co-ordination by agencies whose direct and indirect activities, impact on the sector.