Drive to boost tourist numbers by 230,000
The cross-border body yesterday announced that it had set an overall target of 3% growth in visitor numbers for 2010 which would see an additional 230,000 tourists coming to Ireland next year.
Tourism Ireland chief executive Niall Gibbons said Britain and Germany would be the focus of the organisation’s marketing drive to restore growth to the industry next year.
Mr Gibbons said he hoped Tourism Ireland would have a similar marketing budget to the €52m spent this year on promoting the island of Ireland as a tourist destination. At least €12.8m has been committed to its marketing campaign in Britain, while the first-ever national TV campaign will be run in Germany, he added.
Mr Gibbons justified the strong focus on Britain on the basis that it is the biggest tourism market for both the Republic and Northern Ireland with almost 3.9 million visitors in 2008 followed by the US (908,000) and Germany (468,000).
Latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the number of visitors from Britain so far this year has fallen by 16%, while visitors from continental Europe are down 7%. The number of tourists from North America is down by just under 3%.
It is estimated that 7.6 million overseas visitors will have visited the island of Ireland before the end of the year, generating revenue of about €3.7bn.
Mr Gibbons admitted that the 3% growth target for 2010 was ambitious against a background of a continuing economic downturn and the low value of sterling, with some experts predicting overall tourist numbers would fall by a further 2%.
Tourism Ireland said it hoped to grow the number of visitors from Britain by 2% next year, while it is aiming for a 4% increase in the number of tourists from Germany.
Mr Gibbons said the emphasis in luring more visitors from Britain will be to promote the value of a holiday in Ireland, while a week-long series of events will also be staged in Britain to mark the St Patrick’s Festival next March.
“Value will be a key message for the hugely competitive markets in which we operate and we’ll be highlighting the uniqueness of a holiday on the island of Ireland – the diversity of our culture and heritage and the friendliness of our people,” said Mr Gibbons.
He said the target for overall growth of 3% next year had factored in a continuation of the controversial €10 air travel tax. Mr Gibbons acknowledged that he was a member of the Tourism Renewal Group which had called for the abolition of the tax but added that its impact was difficult to quantify.
Tourism Minister Martin Cullen praised Irish tourism interests for their response to the challenge of offering value for money in spite of the many economic difficulties facing the industry. He admitted that Ireland had priced itself out of the market up to 2007 due to soaring costs.
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