Good trends but we all need value - Tourism growth

Since it touches every community, every village, town, and city in the country, it would be hard to exaggerate the importance of tourism as one of the major engines of the economy. 

Every hotelier and B&B operator as well as the hard-pressed owners of pubs, restaurants, shops, and post offices learned that to their cost when the industry took a seemingly terminal nosedive during the economic collapse. Yet, as they are now discovering — especially those fortunate enough to be located along Wild Atlantic Way — tourists are once more coming to Ireland in ever increasing numbers.

Going on the thesis that a rising tide lifts all boats, businesses up and down the country will take heart from the improving tourism performance as reflected in the latest CSO figures showing a 10% increase in the number of foreign visitors in the first half of this year. An extra 324,000 visitors came to Ireland compared to the same time last year. And what people in the business will find particularly encouraging is that the flow of tourists from the UK has grown 14% while the number of visitors from North America rose 11%. Following the virtual collapse of the sector with the demise of the so-called Celtic Tiger era, that indeed is welcome news.