Overseas tourists drive almost €6bn in revenue to State, figures reveal

Overseas visitors drove €5.8bn in revenue for the State across 2019 — a slight decrease on record figures seen in 2018, according to Tourism Ireland.

Overall, 11.2m visitors from abroad landed on Irish shores over the past 12 months, in what proved to be a “mixed bag” of a year, according to the body’s chief executive, Niall Gibbons.

Tourism Ireland, which handles the marketing of the Irish industry overseas, said its aim now is to grow revenue from foreign visitors to €6.54bn by 2022 — a growth of 13% from where things currently stand, with expected numbers up 7% to 12m. The projected income figure for 2020, meanwhile, is €5.2bn.

Mr Gibbons said that the achievement of the 2022 goal is predicated on a "set of sustainable destination marketing principles":

“These principles will underpin all of Tourism Ireland’s activities and are reflected in our renewed emphasis on driving business to the regions and ensuring the benefits of tourism growth are distributed right around the island of Ireland."

He acknowledged that despite the “decisive” nature of Boris Johnson’s electoral victory in Britain last week, a deal of uncertainty around Brexit remains, uncertainty that contributed in no uncertain manner to diminishing returns from the British tourist market last year, with revenues down 3% to €1.4bn.

“We would be looking for increased certainty,” Mr Gibbons said of the fallout from the British election, which is broadly perceived as meaning that Britain will finally leave the EU before the end of next month.

He added, however, that the bounce seen in sterling as a result of Mr Johnson’s landslide victory may well proved to be a fillip as regards the numbers travelling to Ireland from across the Irish Sea.

“Look at where sterling is compared to a year ago, it’s far more competitive,” he said. With Tourism Ireland’s growth plans for 2022, all of the losses thus far incurred due to Brexit are expected to be recouped, he said.

He added, however, that North America remains the agency’s growth market with the greatest potential.

The importance of positive marketing and a heightened online presence was raised repeatedly at the results announcement with Mr Gibbons at one point referring to Tourism Ireland’s 524,000-strong Twitter following as “fans”.

The need for a positive narrative was perhaps exemplified by the removal of Irish greyhound racing from all tourism promotional materials following the broadcast of a highly-critical RTÉ documentary on the sport last summer. Mr Gibbons said that “conversations are ongoing” with the Irish Greyhound Board as regards that impasse, with a further statement on the matter expected next month.

In terms of the loss of transatlantic routes via Norwegian Air from Cork and Shannon Airports earlier this year, he said that fact, while “disappointing”, is unlikely to affect overall revenues unduly, due to 90% of visitors entering the country at Dublin Airport.