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.

There can be little doubt that the policy of viewing the island of Ireland as a combined entity, North and South, from a tourism perspective is paying off. However, as those tasked with reviving the industry readily admit, the challenge facing Ireland is to ensure the holiday being offered represents an excellent experience all-round, not just in terms of the country’s spectacular scenery but especially by giving the visitor value for their money. From that viewpoint, the country’s past performance as a tourist destination has been anything but convincing. Slogans like the “rip-off capital of Europe” spring to mind.

As a recent report shows, there is considerable cause for concern in this regard. While Dublin was seen by visitors as one of Europe’s friendliest capital cities, it also emerged as being anything but a value-for-money destination. In a countrywide breakdown, people found the experience of dining-out to be very expensive. Inescapably, when the cost of a meal in an Irish restaurant is compared with the experience of dining out in Spain, this country tops the expense league. Much the same can be said for the cost of medicine at the local chemist, yet another area where both the Irish customer and the visitor are still being ripped off despite all the guff about new price regimes.

Arguably, Ireland’s high cost scenario is directly influenced by wage levels. The more people are paid, the dearer things become. That’s a simple fact of life and not an argument against current union demands for higher pay for workers, in both the public and private sectors, who have seen their wages pared to the bone and taxes increased to pay off bondholders and rescue broken banks. The vicious circle of high pay and high costs will continue to undermine tourism unless Government has the stomach to ensure that visitors and Irish citizens alike get real value for their hard-earned money.