For the first time in 18 years, the number of coach tourists from the US has fallen, but that doesn't seem to bother Fr Tom Sheridan and his coachload of parishioners from Wyoming, writes Róisín Ingle
'THE RAIN hasn't bothered me, because God is everywhere," says American Catholic Diane Pita, walking along damp grass below the Papal Cross in the Phoenix Park, Dublin. The sun is shining on the last day of her nine-day tour of Ireland. Nearby, fellow parishioners, from the Wyoming towns of Green River and Rock Springs, are revelling in the dual novelty of a bright yellow ball in the Irish sky and of not having to carry umbrellas.
"You just have to take each day as it comes," adds Pita, recalling that there was another day during the tour, in Killarney or maybe it was Cork, when they didn't get lashed out of it. "When you are on vacation you are just grateful for every day you get up healthy. Rain or shine, it's awesome."
The country needs more tourists like Diane Pita. A heck of a lot more, as she might say. With tour companies reporting US coach tourists are down between 10 and 25 per cent, the industry is facing an uncertain period. The combination of the weak dollar, stock-market swings and problems in the housing market has seen tourists from the US staying away in worrying numbers.
Car parks outside places such as Waterford Crystal are usually an accurate enough barometer when it comes to the buoyancy of the US market. Joe Lavery, of Cronin's Coaches in Cork, the tour guide for the Wyoming crew, says that this summer the numbers of mini-coaches has increased as it becomes more difficult for companies to fill the larger vehicles with US tourists.
'WE'VE DEFINITELY noticed that where once you'd have had 10 or 12 big coaches filling up the bays, they are now taken up mostly with the smaller buses due to cancellations," says. Lavery "We are pulling out all the stops for the people who did travel in the hope that they'll tell others or come back themselves next year."
The Wyoming parish trip, which featured three Masses along the way, was arranged by Fr Tom Sheridan, an Irish priest who had left Cavan in 1964 for Wyoming, a state three times the size of Ireland. He booked the trip through a company called Nawas International, an US-based business founded in 1949 which specialises in worldwide "quality Christian tours". Nawas contracted the tour out to Cronin's who were only too happy to oblige.
"I could have filled the coach twice," says Fr Sheridan, offering some hope to beleaguered coach operators around the country. "We might have to come back next year with more people."
The folk in Green River and, 10 miles away, Rock Springs are perhaps not as typical of the less confident consumers in other parts of America. High employment and a booming energy industry, including Trona Mines, which sources 90 per cent of the world's soda ash from 500 feet below ground in Green River, mean these tourists are affluent enough to make the trip without worrying unduly about the expense. Although "lunch is very expensive", complains one woman eventually, when pressed on negative aspects of her holiday.
For Fr Sheridan it has been a chance to show his parishioners where he came from and for this reason they took a detour at one point to go through Cavan, taking lunch at his cousin's hotel.
When he first arrived in Wyoming, in the 1960s, there were 43 priests in the state and more than half of those were Irish.
"We called ourselves FBI's, foreign-born Irish," he smiles.
'WHEN I WAS IN the seminary in Kilkenny I read in a travel book about this place called Wyoming, a place of high altitudes, low multitudes and great extremes in temperature," says Fr Sheridan. When they left Wyoming, there were "really high temperatures, a lot of sun and dry air . . . Everybody is saying how much they like the soft air here and how it feels nice against their skin."
The other highlights vary. Stan McKee has been most impressed by Joe Lavery's "encyclopaedic knowledge of Ireland" and has discovered the joys of a daily Guinness. His wife Judy would say more about this development except "she's lost her voice", says Stan, looking pleased. Texas- based Joan Bayes, who is here with her sister and both her parents, is enjoying the "cool weather, the music and the dancing". Her family's T-shirts read: "What happens in Ireland, stays in Ireland" and that's all she is saying about that.
Diane Pita's favourite part was the trip to Knock. "Although we didn't spend enough time there, I'd like to go back," she says.
While it's encouraging for those in the industry to get such positive feedback, next summer Nassau Street in Dublin is likely to be less clogged than usual with coaches carrying US tourists to see the Book of Kells.
GOLFING TOURS have been hit particularly hard, while anecdotal evidence suggests that when US tourists are here, they are more frugal in their spending. According to New Jersey-based Brian Stack, managing director of CIÉ Tours International, US coach tours are down about 12 per cent on last year. Even allowing for the fact that, he says, the figures have risen for each of the previous 18 summers, it's still a cause for concern.
"The reasons for the current downturn are on the front pages of the newspapers every day," he says. "Any one of those things on their own - the dollar being weak, the problems in the housing market, the stock market swings - would affect numbers, but when they all come together it has a more significant impact".
The company's plan, he says, is to "market our way out of the situation". They are currently targeting religious groups such as the Wyoming parishioners and the Scots-Irish in the US, who, he says make up a "huge" segment of the Irish-American population, and a sector that has not really been targeted before.
"This year we have our first tour which is specifically geared to the Scots-Irish. It's fair to say we are out there scouring every nook and cranny for business," he says.
Does he think the comparatively high prices here are turning people away? "We survey every passenger and we have never had any comments about the place being too expensive," he says. He is aware that some US tourists can get "sticker shock" when they see the prices on labels.
"We are optimistic because we have a great product and a great team of people behind that product. We know that next year is going to be difficult, so we are trying to prepare and get as many bookings as we can," he says.
Mike Buckley, managing director of Kerry Coaches and vice-chairman of the Coach Tourism and Transport Council Lobby, reports the American market is down "as much as 20 to 25 per cent".
When you consider that the company's fuel costs have risen by over 40 per cent on last year, the outlook is bleak.
'WE ARE WORKING very hard to get 2009 back on track, we are offering the same rates and doing our best not to pass on the increased fuel costs to the consumer," he says. "We have to get the message out there that Ireland is a good value destination, safe and accessible." Is he optimistic? "We are always optimistic in Kerry," he says. "We have a fantastic product and the bottom line is that we are going to come back from this."
The visitors from Wyoming have certainly been impressed with the product. Kathy Luzmoor has enjoyed "the hedgerows and the people". Her husband, an Episcopalian in the middle of all these Catholics, says it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience coming with Fr Sheridan. He has enjoyed it all but was most taken by the "landscape, the scenery and the people".
Both well-travelled, they agree the only quibble they'd have with this country is the cost. At the same time "we knew what we were in for when we came, plus we are at a time in our lives when we have a bit of money to spare", says Kathy.
Philip presses home the point. "I was looking at a golf club in a shop the other day and the price was around 60 per cent higher than it would have been in the US," he says. "I can see how it might put people off, especially when you add in all the other costs of travelling. You just have to hope that whatever the price, people will come.
"I will certainly be spreading the word that Ireland is worth it, whatever the price. And I know I will be coming back." "Where once you'd have big coaches filling up the bays, they are now taken up with smaller buses. We are pulling out the stops for people who did travel