Trips abroad to visit relatives and friends down 13%

THE number of overseas visits by Irish people fell in the last quarter of last year, with an even steeper fall in the number of visits to friends and relatives.

The overall number of visits dropped 6% in the last three months of last year compared with the same period in 2007, but the number of overseas visits to relatives and friends fell 13% — a marked decline at a time that includes the busy Christmas period.

In the opposite direction, holiday visits to Ireland dropped 11% in the last quarter of last year compared with the same period in 2007, while the number of nights spent in hotels by overseas visitors here decreased 18% in the same period.

For visitors from North America the decrease was even more marked, at 37%.

In total, there were 1,665,000 visits from overseas to Ireland and 1,636,000 visits abroad, with Irish people spending more on their overseas trips, resulting in a net outflow of e556 million.

The decline in the number of overseas visits to Ireland and by Irish people to other countries has been attributed to the effects of the recession, with the new chairman of the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation yesterday claiming the tourism sector faced an unprecedented challenge.

In his first address to the confederation at its annual general meeting, Tom Haughey, who is director of Industry Affairs for the Dublin Airport Authority, said: “At no time before have all our source markets been in severe economic decline at the same time.

“Given the substantial reliance on the domestic market of large sectors of our industry, and of some resorts and regions, the next couple of years will present particular problems as the Irish economy goes through a difficult period of readjustment.”

Despite this, he said, the Irish tourism product was sound given the massive public and private sector investment of the last decade.

In the Dáil yesterday, Fine Gael tourism spokeswoman Olivia Mitchell said it was time to move responsibility for the sector to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

Ms Mitchell said the tourism industry was the country’s biggest employer, with 300,000 people working in the sector, yet Ireland needed to be “a lot smarter in what we offer and how we market and deliver the tourism product”.