Economy blamed for slump in tourism

FACTORS SUCH as the economic downturn and exchange rates have been blamed for a major reduction in the number of British trips to Ireland in July.

The latest data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows an 8.1 per cent drop in visitor numbers here in July. Visits by British residents fell by more than 17 per cent to 341,800. Trips by US residents dropped by 6.1 per cent to 137,100 and those from the rest of Europe fell by 0.3 per cent to 311,600.

Tourism Ireland spokeswoman Sinead Grace said the figures highlighted the "very tough trading conditions" in the British market.

She said enticing tourists from Britain, our biggest tourism market, was particularly difficult this year because of the downturn in the global economy, oil prices and the exchange rate. The currency fluctuations meant that it was about 16 per cent more expensive for Britons to holiday in Ireland compared with a year ago.

Jim Dalton of the CSO said the drop in trips from Britain could be due to a combination of economic slowdown and bad weather.

He said that there was always a degree of volatility in monthly figures but the data for the year to date showed a smaller reduction. There was a 1.8 per cent reduction in trips from Britain in the first seven months of the year.

After Britain and the US, Germany accounted for the most trips in July (55,600), followed by France, Italy and Spain. There were more than 28,000 trips from Polish residents to Ireland in July.

More than 4.5 million trips to Ireland were taken from January to July this year - a 0.4 per cent increase on 2007. This contrasts with a growth of just over 4 per cent in 2007 and 12 per cent in 2006.

For the first time in several years, there were more Irish trips overseas than trips to Ireland in the first seven months of this year.

The number of overseas trips taken by Irish residents grew by almost six per cent to 856,400 in July.