Ireland is too dependent on US tourists
And again because of the foul weather, we watched and listened to a lot of television and radio, and read numerous Irish newspapers every day.
As first-time visitors to Ireland, we were surprised by the magnitude of the media-based debate surrounding the significant decline in American tourists.
It surprised me greatly that Ireland was so dependent on revenue from US tourists.
In my view, those who manage Ireland’s inward tourism policy and strategy urgently need to examine the reasons why this dependency exists, and swiftly correct it.
The first crucial fact about attracting US tourists to Ireland is to understand that just 20% of all Americans possess passports. From a total population of 260-million people, this means that just 52-million American are able or willing to travel overseas at any given time.
By international comparison, the number of U S citizens holding passports is very low.
Germany, for example, with 92 million citizens, has 67.4 million passport holders, France 58.4 million, Japan 70 million and Italy 37 million.
What surprised me most about Ireland’s dependency on the US market was that over 60% of the tourist organisation Bord Fáilte’s annual global marketing budget is spent on luring tourists from America. This is incredible, and in my opinion the money would be better spent on developing non-US markets, most especially Germany, Japan and France.
As regards my first-time experience of Ireland, we found the prices of virtually everything, from accommodation to food, overpriced, many roads dangerous to drive on, and cities such as Dublin, Limerick and Cork quite untidy and seriously littered.
Not exactly the wonderful green isle promised by Bord Fáilte in its very glossy brochure.
Ray Hammond,
29 North Wacker Drive,
Chicago Illinois 60606-3203,
