THE RETURN of the Irish tourism sector to pre-recession levels could take up to five years, a new report has predicted.
A Changed World for Irish Tourismwas commissioned by the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation to look at the sector's challenges and point the way forward.
It says trading will continue to be difficult for most businesses, “with recovery to pre-recession levels at least three to five years away. However, recovery is by no means assured”.
The report by Tourism and Transport Consult International stresses the importance of the British market and says failure to turn it around will stunt overall recovery. British holidaymakers account for about half of all tourists to Ireland.
The numbers remained almost unchanged at 1.7 million each year before tumbling to 1.1 million last year.
The confederation’s chief executive Eamonn McKeon said it was even more worrying that the number of British visitors coming to Ireland for the first time almost halved between 2003 and 2009.
Report author Noel Sweeney said the reaction of British visitors to the value of their Irish holiday had been worrying with almost one in three considering it bad value for money last year.
He said this was bound to have a ripple effect. He also said Ireland’s reputation as a high-priced destination would not change until issues such as labour rates, utility charges and local authority fees were addressed.
The report recommends that the tourism sector focus on Ireland’s four most important markets – Britain, the US, Germany and France and says the recovery of the British market should be a top priority. It also calls for increased marketing of Dublin and notes that up to 80 per cent of overseas visitors arrive through the capital.
“The rate of growth in demand for Dublin has not only outpaced the rate of growth in the overall holiday market to Ireland in recent years, but ‘Dublin only’ visits held up better over the past two years than the total holiday market to the country,” it states.
The report highlights the need to maintain adequate air access and calls for a scrapping of the €10 travel tax.
Asked about the tax yesterday, Minister for Tourism Mary Hanafin said: “We will certainly look at it again in the context of the budget but ultimately it will be an issue between myself and the Minister for Finance.”
The Irish Tourist Industry Confederation said the indications were strongly pointing to the probability that the difficult trading period was bottoming out.
“What is important now is that the industry and Government work together to manage recovery in the fastest possible time,” Mr McKeon said.
A Fáilte Ireland spokesman said, that, despite the downbeat assessment, the organisation remained cautiously optimistic.
“The tourism product has never been better, our competitiveness has improved over the last two consecutive seasons and we are starting to see some pick-up, primarily in the US,” he said.
