In November 2001, the Government approved the creation of a National Tourism Development Authority to promote the development of sustainable tourist facilities and services, including the promotion of training, human resources and marketing skills.
The legislation to provide for the establishment of the National Tourism Development Authority, known operationally as Fáilte Ireland, was signed into law on 13 April 2003. Details of the legislation (The National Tourism Development Authority Act 2003) can be found here.
On 21 May 2003, the then Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism announced its membership and designated 28 May 2003 as its Establishment Day. The current Chief Executive of the Authority, Mr Paul Kelly, took up duty in February 2017.
Fáilte Ireland’s role is to support the tourism industry and work to sustain Ireland as a high-quality and competitive tourism destination. It provides a range of practical business supports to help tourism businesses better manage and market their products and services.
It also works with other State agencies and representative bodies, at local and national levels, to implement and champion positive and practical strategies that will benefit Irish tourism and the Irish economy.
Fáilte Ireland promotes Ireland as a holiday destination through its domestic marketing campaign, DiscoverIreland.ie, and manages a network of nationwide tourist information centres that provide help and advice for visitors to Ireland.
Fáilte Ireland's website contains information on more than 20,000 Irish tourism businesses including details of accommodation, activities, attractions and events. The database is also geo-coded and map enabled, and includes details of thousands of Irish locations, cities, towns and villages.
Tourism Ireland is a North-South body, established following the Good Friday Agreement, to market the island of Ireland as a tourism destination in overseas markets. Put simply, Tourism Ireland focuses on getting the visitors to Ireland and Fáilte Ireland focuses on the quality of the experience provided to those visitors by the Irish tourism industry. Fáilte Ireland is also responsible for the marketing of domestic tourism on the island of Ireland. Fáilte Ireland is not a North-South body. It operates within the State.