The tourism industry says it's not too late to rescue the season as long as the Minister acts, writes Joe Humphreys
If the Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism thought he could spend the summer easing into his new brief, he was mistaken.
Less than a month in the job, and with the tourism season reaching its peak, Mr O'Donoghue is feeling the heat from tourism industry chiefs who have called for his urgent intervention to rescue what they believe could be a disastrous year for the industry.
The Irish Tourist Industry Confederation this week joined others in urging the Minister to fund a new overseas marketing campaign, targeting in particular the lucrative US market. The group claimed Mr O'Donoghue had at his disposal about €3.1 million which, it said, had been set aside by the previous minister in case the expected recovery in tourism did not materialise.
Industry representatives contrast the absence of emergency funding in Ireland with a £45 million advertising campaign recently launched in Britain.
Mr John Power, chief executive of the Irish Hotels Federation, says a number of other countries are running similar campaigns in the wake of a fall-off in business after September 11th. "We are reducing our spend in terms of advertising, and by doing so we are losing out. The Exchequer, the economy, everyone is losing out. That's particularly true when other countries are investing heavily on expanding their business."
In Killarney, Co Kerry, late last month, Mr O'Donoghue seemed to rule out any such investment, citing "a tight budgetary situation", but since then his stance appears to have softened somewhat. He is due to meet Bord Fáilte today, and the Irish Hotels Federation and other industry representatives before the end of the week, as part of a consultation process on the crisis.
A spokesman said Mr O'Donoghue would try, through the talks, "to identify what measures can be taken in the industry at this point".
The spokesman rejected claims that investment in tourism marketing had fallen, saying this year's budget of more than €50 million was the largest yet. Another €60 million has been allocated to support the industry by other means.
Last month, the Minister highlighted the fact that Tourism Ireland took a decision to front-load its marketing spend this year. He said to spend money in the US market now "could not yield the results".
However, Mr Power disagrees. "It's not to late to do this. We have a very late booking pattern nowadays and we are only at the start of July. There is clear evidence that when you keep the campaign going, bookings come and when you stop the bookings stop."
As to whether there is a crisis in tourism, the evidence is not without its contradictions. Recent surveys indicate that visitor numbers from the US are down on last year, while numbers from Britain are up.
The most important aspect of this trend is the difference in revenue from the two markets. Last year, the average British visitor stayed for 5.6 days in Ireland and spent €363. This compared to an average stay of of 9.6 days and a spend of €793 by Americans.
The Irish Tourist Industry Confederation said the fall-off in US business had "serious implications for revenue earning". It identified a number of areas which it believed would be particularly badly hit, including hotels, coach touring, car rental, visitor attractions and high-quality shopping.
Recent research by Bord Fáilte bears out some of these fears but not all. Its latest tourism barometer survey found hotels and car-hire operators reported a marginal increase in business in the first six months of this year compared to the same period in 2001.
It noted active pursuits had also improved their position on last year, particularly equestrian activities and angling, while there was some improvement in golf.
The survey did, however, bear out confederation concerns for coach operators, which it said, were "suffering more severely than any other sector as a result of the decline in the American market". The survey said visitor attractions were, on balance, receiving fewer visitors than a year ago.
What then is to blame for this fall-off in business in certain sectors? While September 11th, foot- and-mouth and other factors tend to be cited by the industry, the rising costs of holidays is increasingly being highlighted by visitors themselves.
Last week's Forfás report on consumer prices showed Ireland was now the most expensive country in the euro zone in which to procure pub and restaurant services and the third most expensive in which to buy recreational or cultural goods and services. The report also cited an "unusually" high increase in prices for cultural admittances during the euro changeover period.
In its defence, the industry says it too is a victim of rising costs, which it claims it has tried to avoid passing onto the consumer. On hotels specifically, the tourism confederation said it had been engaged in "heavy price discounting" to try to increase business in the domestic market to compensate for the loss of foreign visitors.