The World Cup and rising prices are the latest obstacles to hit tourism, according to accommodation and service providers in the midlands.
Some overseas visitors postponed holidays in order to watch the World Cup while people planning to holiday at home overspent during the match celebrations and are now reviewing their holiday plans.
Coupled with that is a steady increase in the number of complaints from overseas visitors about rising prices of items such as food, drink and car hire in this State.
Michael McDonnell, who runs Viking Tours from his Athlone base on the Shannon, said group bookings were holding up but casual tourists were "practically nil".
The World Cup was "a curse" for people in the tourism and retail business, he said, and added that shopkeepers in Athlone noticed a fall in their takings since the tournament began. "Whatever money they would have spent in shops was spent in pubs instead," he said.
Mr McDonnell said his group bookings only held up because of his own intensive marketing. "The number of casual tourists has been going downhill since 1998. The country is getting too expensive."
He said overseas tour operators from countries such as Austria and Germany had been warning about the growing expense of this State for years.
"They said wait until the euro comes in and people can compare, and they were right." Traditionally expensive countries such as Denmark were now cheaper than this State, he said. Nor was the Athlone region benefiting from US tourists.
"Americans are so rare in Athlone that if you saw one you'd want to take a photo of one to keep as a souvenir," he said.
Rosanne Broderick, who runs Angling Safaris with her husband Alan on the shores of Lough Derravaragh in Westmeath, said angling businesses clearly felt the effect of the World Cup, because their main client base consisted of groups of men.
"Tourism is very difficult at the moment," she said. When angling tourism was hit by foot-and-mouth restrictions, tourists found alternative destinations such as Scandinavia and North America and it was difficult to win them back.
Angling Safaris specialises in pike fishing which is a high-value end of the market.
But these tourists, from countries such as Germany, Holland and Italy, were finding Ireland too expensive, she said. "Customers regularly complain about the price of car hire," she said. "They really resent paying so much for it and it adds hugely to the cost of the trip. There's nothing we can do about that."
She called for increased co-operation between Bord Fáilte and the fisheries boards and a blanket adoption of the "catch and release rule" so fish stocks would remain at viable levels.
"That's what happens in North America. They catch the fish, take the photograph and put it back in the water again."
Heather Williams, of Celtic Canal Cruisers in Tullamore, said the introduction of the euro had highlighted the growing expense of this State as a destination. "The Germans, in particular, have mentioned it. Before it was harder to see the value but now with the euro, the price differential is clear."
She said the Government must recognise that there was a crisis in the industry and must do something concrete to help. "There was a lot of talk during foot-and-mouth that they would do this and that, but what happened?"
Many businesses would be glad to see the end of the World Cup, said Ms Betty Egan, at Multyfarnham Holiday Village in Westmeath.
She said restaurants were also affected by the tournament, as people were not eating out as much. But it was just one factor to explain a "quite bad" season.
Business saw an "instant drop" after the foot-and-mouth outbreak and while it seemed to improve again, the year was not promising. Of her 11 years in business, this was the worst, she said.
"There's no comparison. But we are hoping it will improve. We are hoping we will get late bookings."
Big sports events such as the Olympics and World Cup have always had an impact on tourism, according to Mr Kerry Sloane, manager of Athlone Cruisers.
"People are very interested in those events and they set a period of time aside to watch them."
He was one of the few tourism operators to describe the season as a good one. "Overall, it's about the same as last year. It's quite a good year. We have a lot of extra Irish people on short breaks."
Despite the various crises, the bus tours have continued to support Clonmacnoise, one of the midland's biggest tourist attractions. Between May 1st and mid-June, visitor numbers increased from 27,159 to 29,658 - an 11 per cent rise. Taking account of the fall in business last year due to foot-and-mouth, business was just about back to normal, a spokesman at the site said.
A spokesman for the East Coast and Midlands Tourism was not available this week.
A Bord Fáilte spokesman said it appeared that tourism operators in the midlands were not as badly hit as those in parts of the south and in Dublin.