Plunge in May tourist figures bodes ill for tourism sector

THE TOURISM sector is bracing itself for one of the worst summers on record after data for May showed a dramatic fall in visitors.

The latest travel figures, published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) yesterday, showed overseas visits to Ireland fell by 148,200 (18.4 per cent) in May compared with the corresponding month last year. There were 657,600 visits from abroad in May compared with 805,700 visits in May 2008.

This was the largest annual decline in May, a month traditionally viewed as a barometer of the season ahead, since the CSO began compiling its overseas travel surveys in 2000.

Trips to Ireland from Britain and mainland Europe, the State’s two main visitor markets, saw some of their steepest annual declines on record.

Visitor numbers from Britain fell nearly 23 per cent (91,600) to 306,400 in May compared with the same month last year.

Trips from Britain have now fallen by 227,400 or 14.7 per cent in the first five months of the year.

The numbers travelling from other countries in Europe fell by 20 per cent (51,200) to 219,300 in May and have fallen 3.4 per cent in the year to date.

The figures show the total number of overseas visits to Ireland has now dropped 9.6 per cent to 2,667,500 since the beginning of the year, obliterating the 4 per cent growth witnessed during the same period in 2008.

Trips abroad by Irish residents in May were 610,000, down nearly 10 per cent on the same period last year. The figures, which did not give a breakdown of the destinations travelled to by Irish residents, showed overseas trips during the first five months of 2009 were down 10.4 per cent to 2,729,400.

Tourism Ireland spokeswoman Sinead Grace said the poor figures reflected a sharp downturn in consumer confidence in the country’s main European and US markets.

“But even when people are coming here, because of fluctuations in the exchange rate and reductions in disposable income they are spending less,” she said.

Ms Grace noted there had also been a substantial reduction in access capacity from countries like Britain in terms of flights and ferry crossings, which, she said, were crucial to maintaining tourism growth in an island nation.

Fine Gael tourism spokeswoman Olivia Mitchell described the drop in visitor numbers as “nothing short of catastrophic”.

Ms Mitchell said: “The worst fears of all those working in the tourism industry have been realised; the summer season is a bust.”

The president of the Irish Hotels Federation, Matthew Ryan, called on the Government and the tourism agencies to take immediate action to reverse the trend, including offering free travel to all UK residents aged 66 and over.

The chief executive of the Irish Travel Agents Association, Simon Nugent, said the overall decline in outbound travel looked set to be around 10 per cent this year, but he warned some tour operators had reduced their capacity by up to 30 per cent.

“People are being more economical in how they spend their money on trips, limiting the distance they are going, cutting back on business-class seats and spending less when they are abroad,” he said.

Later the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation expressed disappointment at the figures. According to chief executive Eamonn McKeon, the industry was expecting more of the same for the remainder of 2009.

Nevertheless, the confederation said there would be almost seven million visitors in 2009, with attendant revenue of over €4 billion.