The number of visitors to Dublin tourist offices fell by 30 per cent between January and the end of April this year.
Dublin Tourism has blamed the September 11th attacks for the fall in business and has estimated that the number of tourists visiting the city will drop by between 10 and 20 per cent this year.
Bord Fáilte's view is more optimistic. Mr Malcolm Connolly, Bord Fáilte's corporate development manager, said Bord Fáilte was aiming for a 5 per cent growth in visitor numbers to the State this year.
Central Statistics Office figures released this week showed a 5.1 per cent drop in visitor numbers to the State last year.
Mr Frank Magee, Dublin Tourism chief executive, said the 30 per cent reduction in visitors to the six Dublin tourist offices meant that essential sales revenue was not being generated.
Because of this, Dublin Tourism's marketing activities had to be curtailed at a time when promotional activities were more necessary than ever, he said.
"The first three months of 2002 are worrying from a tourism viewpoint," he said. "We estimate at best a further 10 per cent decrease on last year. Bearing in mind the significant number of additional beds in Dublin, this means that, in fact, individual properties on average will experience a greater downturn."
Mr Magee was speaking at the launch of Dublin Tourism's 2001 annual report. He said this State suffered more than the rest of Europe in the aftermath of September 11th because of its island status and reliance on the American market.
Dublin, in turn, suffered more than the rest of the State because the Exchequer's marketing fund favoured the regions.
The capital city was allocated just 5 per cent of the annual €1.27 million fund, he said, due to an emphasis on promoting tourism in the rest of the State.
"The time has now come for Dublin to be reinstated as a beneficiary of regional marketing funds."
This year's downturn in business was expected in the aftermath of September 11th. Mr Magee said there were now 11,500 fewer airline seats from the US to this State in any given week.
The reduction in seats from the US to Britain and Europe meant that this figure could be more than doubled as so many visitors came via Europe. "There is absolutely no indication at all that there will be any improvement in this," Mr Magee said.
Provisional figures from the annual report show that overseas visitors to the region fell by 4 per cent to 3.2 million last year but revenue still increased by 22 per cent.
Mr Magee said he found this hard to believe and said it "might validate the increased comments that we are getting about Dublin being expensive".
More than 1.4 million people called to the six Dublin tourist offices last year, according to the report.
