Tourism industry looks to the East
The bid to tap tourism markets in the Gulf and Asia comes as the numbers of visitors from Britain and the US continues to fall.
Considerable groundwork has already been done through new Irish tourism offices in Shanghai, Mumbai and Dubai, the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee heard yesterday at a meeting attended by tourism organisations.
Their research has shown visitors from these regions stay about 14 nights, twice as long as the average holidaymaker. They also spend more and are more likely to travel throughout the whole island, research has found.
Currently, visitors from these regions represent just 4% of visitors to the island of Ireland, generating an estimated e173 million in 2007. Tourism Ireland believes these earnings could double by 2013.
Figures revealed yesterday show tourist numbers dropped by about 300,000 last year. Provisional estimates by Tourism Ireland show a 3% fall in visitors from 9.1 million in 2007 to 8.8 million last year.
Tourism Ireland chief executive Paul O’Toole said visitors still had problems with value for money in Ireland. Recent research showed that while 93% of tourists were satisfied with trips here, many still came away feeling items like food and drink were overpriced.
There were “tougher times ahead”, he warned, adding that until now tourists from Britain, France, Germany and the US had accounted for the bulk of our visitors.
The tourism body expects Ireland to suffer further decline in tourism numbers this year, with poor trading conditions and the impact of the change in sterling among reasons.
Emerging tourism markets being targeted are China, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, as well as India.
This follows on from promotions established in South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Japan which had attracted increasing numbers of visitors, the committee heard.
After a recent marketing campaign about Ireland in India tourism “web traffic went through the roof”, Mr O’Toole said.
China and India would be the “powerhouses” of tourism in the next 10 to 20 years, added the Tourism Ireland chief. There was the potential to establish more lucrative business from those countries while not affecting the already established visitor numbers from the US and Britain, he said.
Meanwhile, Fáilte Ireland yesterday said their efforts to boost tourist numbers here had led to discussions with the GAA about encouraging visitors to go to games or fixtures.
The initiative is expected to see links established on the tourism websites with GAA games. Fáilte Ireland chief Shaun Quinn said tourists were enthralled when they went up to matches.
