IRELAND’S TOURISM industry welcomed 800,000 fewer visitors between January and October 2009 than the same period last year, figures from the Central Statistics Office show.
Irish tourists also made fewer trips abroad this year, despite claims by some travel agents in July that the expected trend toward “staycations” or holidaying at home had not materialised and people were still going overseas.
Some 6,032,800 trips were made to Ireland for the 10 months to the end of October, compared to 6,836,000 the previous year.
During October, the number of overseas trips to Ireland fell by 16.7 per cent to 551,300 from 12 months earlier, bringing the number of trips for the month back to almost the same level as October 2004.
The number of trips to Ireland by British visitors fell by 14.6 per cent to 276,600 in October 2009, while those from other European countries were down by almost 23 per cent to 177,800. Trips by visitors from North America fell by 6.9 per cent to 71,500.
Britain proved the most popular destination for Irish tourists, with almost half of all Irish travellers going there.
Some 7,877,364 overseas trips were made by Irish people for the year up to October 2009, 3,872,393 of which were to the Britain.
Responding to the latest figures, Niall Gibbons, chief executive of Tourism Ireland, said: “2009 has been one of the toughest years for tourism to the island of Ireland and for tourism worldwide and the CSO figures issued today reflect the impact on Ireland and on tourism businesses across the island.”
Fine Gael tourism spokeswoman Olivia Mitchell said: “[Minister for Tourism] Martin Cullen’s own advisers, the Tourism Renewal Group, pointed out that the Departure Tax should be abolished. Unfortunately the Government still sees fit to impose this daft tax.
“With thinking like that, the sector can only continue to suffer.”