Irish tourism providers must focus on our four most important markets - Britain, the US, Germany and France - if the decline in the industry is to be reversed, a new report has found.
A Changed World for Irish Tourism was commissioned by the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation and it predicts that the recovery of the Irish tourism sector to pre-recession levels could take up to five years.
It highlights the importance of the British holidaymakers who account for about half of all tourists to Ireland. The number of British tourists coming here remained almost unchanged at 1.7 million each year before falling 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. They accounted for less than one third of British holiday visitors last year.
The report says the recovery of the British market is a top priority. It also calls for increased marketing of Dublin and notes that up to 80 per cent of overseas visitors arrive through Dublin. Attracting greater numbers to Dublin would underpin a return to growth in Irish tourism, according to the report, which was carried out by Tourism and Transport Consult International.
It highlights the need to maintain adequate air access and says air transport policies must not militate against the continued viability of air services to and from Ireland. The confederation today repeated its call for a scrapping of the travel tax and said it was essential to secure the continued operation of many services to and from Ireland.
Mr McKeon 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, even if it is likely that 2007 peak levels will not be regained for up to 5 years."
Minister for Tourism Mary Hanafin said the Government was strongly committed to working with all those involved to ensure that the tourism sector returned to growth. "The main emphasis is on helping the sector generate additional visitors from overseas, increasing domestic tourism, supporting the industry to address its cost base and ensuring that credit is available to tourism enterprises requiring it.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland earlier today, she said she expected to meet Nama representatives soon to discuss the surplus of hotels in the State. She said it was not the Government's business to decide which hotels should close but that it was important to protect jobs and allow viable hotel businesses access to credit.
Fine Gael tourism spokesman, Jimmy Deenihan said the report provided "a very worrying snapshot" of the tourism industry and was "a shocking indictment" of the Government's failure to prioritise tourism.
"Minister Hanafin needs to show some leadership on this issue. If she has any ministerial credibility she will push for the abolition of the departure tax as a priority and coordinate a real response to the issues highlighted by this report," he said.
