Tourism sector prepared for another tough year

TOURISM OPERATORS are bracing themselves for another difficult year, with half of accommodation providers surveyed by Fáilte Ireland believing it will be the same as last year.

However, almost one-quarter of hotels said they expected business to improve this year.

Fáilte Ireland’s tourism barometer survey found that bed and breakfast owners were the most pessimistic about the year ahead, with 47 per cent believing that trade would be worse this year and just 11 per cent expecting an improvement.

Fáilte Ireland chief executive Shaun Quinn said the industry was more optimistic about its future this year than it was last year.

This time last year, one-fifth of tourism operators said the year ahead would be on a par with or better than the previous year, while almost two-thirds of businesses were saying the same thing this year.

“To be honest with you, holding your own in the current climate is a damn good result,” Mr Quinn said.

Tourism revenue fell by almost 17 per cent last year to €5.2 billion, its lowest level since 2004. Provisional figures show the number of overseas visitors travelling here fell by 12 per cent in 2009. Domestic trips within Ireland fell by about 5 per cent – the first time they declined in the past decade.

Redmond O’Donoghue, chairman of Fáilte Ireland, said the best thing he could say about last year was that it was over.

Last year was “all about survival” but he hoped it would be “the last tough year” in the current challenging period.

“The industry would be saying to us that the downturn is likely to level off in 2010. The industry is somewhat more optimistic going into 2010 than it was in 2009,” he said.

Mr Quinn said visitor numbers from Britain had fallen by 16 per cent last year while mainland European and north American visitors were back by 8 per cent. The west of Ireland had a 17 per cent reduction in overseas visitors while Dublin had a 9 per cent decline.

Fáilte Ireland has estimated that airline capacity will fall by about 60,000 seats this year. Provisional figures suggest that capacity could fall by 12 per cent on British routes, 19 per cent on European routes and 20 per cent on long-haul services.

Asked if it was disappointing that the home holiday market had not grown more last year, given the focus on “staycations” and promotions, Mr Quinn said it could have been much worse, given the recessionary climate.

“More and more people are saying they are going to spend less which leads us to believe that they’ll probably take more breaks in Ireland. We think that happened to some degree last year and we certainly think it’s going to continue into 2010,” he said.

He said the prospects for some markets, such as Germany and other key continental European markets appeared “relatively favourable” and growth was expected.

Mr O’Donoghue said there were some reasons for optimism, including the opening of the National Convention Centre, scheduled for September 1st, the new Lansdowne Road stadium and the completion of motorways linking Dublin with the rest of the country.

Fáilte Ireland is also preparing proposals on offering discounted or free travel to senior citizens from other markets, as promised in the Budget.

Mr Quinn said he hoped the initiative would be up and running in March.

The tourism industry is targeting 3 per cent growth in visitor numbers this year but world tourism forecaster Tourism Economicshas predicted a 2 per cent fall in tourists coming here.