Tourists give ‘rip-off’ Ireland a miss

MOST overseas visitors to Ireland see it as a rip-off and it looks like they are voting with their feet as a result.

In a survey carried out by Bord Fáilte, only 43% of overseas visitors regard Ireland as good value for money. This is a big decline on the 58% in 2001 and the high of 61% in the millennium year.

The figure for mainland Europe, at 24%, is particularly bad, and reflects the transparency of costs since the introduction of the euro at the beginning of the year. Most sectors of the industry have seen a drop in numbers from our main overseas markets, and the prospects for 2003 look no better.