Landscape replaces welcome as top attraction for visitors
Rising prices and the decline of the traditional Irish welcome mean that the landscape has taken over as the country's number one attraction.
Those are the main findings of a book on the state of Irish tourism launched by Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism John O'Donoghue in Cork yesterday.
Co-authors Angela Wright and Dr Margaret Linehan, lecturers at Cork Institute of Technology, found that American visitors have picked up on the growing trend of non-national employees in the hospitality trade.
"While non-nationals can actually be friendlier than Irish staff, they
often lack the local knowledge. US visitors like meeting Irish people on the front desk," Dr Linehan said.
The book, Ireland: Tourism and Marketing, is an assessment of the tourism industry in Ireland.
Ms Wright interviewed 13 key tourism industry players, including the minister and Paul O'Toole, Tourism Ireland's chief executive.
Mr O'Toole said Ireland's once warm welcome has cooled.
"There is no doubt that the 'fáilte' is becoming frail around the edges and a little bit tarnished as a result of how Ireland has changed," he said.
The book suggests a range of initiatives to improve the situation, including:
The implementation of a strategic national plan for tourism; Competitive prices. We're overpriced. We need to ensure people get better value for money;
The development of proactive strategies to attract tourists;
City breaks should be promoted more; Ireland is over reliant on US tourists. British and European markets should be targeted; The home market should also be targeted.
Tourism is one of Ireland's most important economic activities, supporting 150,000 jobs.
It is the second biggest earner for the Irish exchequer, consisting of E5 billion in foreign revenue and 1.2bn in domestic expenditure.
Ireland received 6.3 million visitors in 2003.
Ireland: Tourism and Marketing, is published by Blackhall Publishing.
