CERT estimates that about 8,000 jobs were lost in the leisure industries last year. Most of the jobs were part-time and seasonal. Nonetheless, their loss is acute for the individuals concerned and for their communities, often on the western seaboard, where conventional manufacturing jobs are difficult to come by. The tourist industry will do well in the current year to contain these losses.
The CERT report on the prospects for tourism in 2002 says the year will be challenging. That is an understatement. The year will be characterised by the reluctance of Americans to fly to Europe, compounded by the airlines' response in cutting routes. Visitors from the US last year declined in numbers by between 18 per cent and 24 per cent. It is not realistic to expect losses on this scale can be reversed in a single year.
Hopes are being pinned on the UK market and domestic tourism to make up the inevitable losses from the United States. It is as yet unclear how the introduction of the euro will impact on the travel patterns of those EU members who have chosen to remain outside the new currency's domain. Sterling remains strong against the euro and, from the perspective of the Irish tourist industry, that is encouraging.
The tourist industry has long believed that Ireland is not getting the share of continental European visitors that it should. Only about one per cent of German and French holidaymakers come to Ireland - a figure that should be improved on. This will be expensive. The continental tourist is extravagantly wooed by tourist boards the world over. At the forthcoming Holiday Fair in Berlin, for example, about 5,000 individual exhibitors will lay out their wares before the German public and travel trade. International tourism is intensely competitive.
There is a growing problem with our visitors' perception of the value they are getting for their money. Even worse, the CERT report finds that the service they received was not as friendly as they had expected. A warm welcome is the cornerstone of Irish tourism and any slippage could be more damaging than any external factors which will dictate the prosects for the year ahead.