Volcanic ash cut April travel by 30%

THE IMPACT of the ash cloud from the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull caused a dramatic drop in overseas travel figures both to and from Ireland, the Central Statistics Office has said.

Closure of airspace in April resulted in Irish residents making 161,500 fewer trips abroad – a drop of almost 30 per cent compared to the same period in 2009.

Irish residents made a total of 417,900 overseas trips in April, 27.9 per cent fewer than the previous year. Trips by overseas residents to Ireland were also hit hard, with 151,300 fewer people (25 per cent) visiting the Republic in April 2010 than the corresponding month in 2009.

Visitors from Britain were down by 14.2 per cent to 249,900 while trips to Ireland by residents of other European countries and North America decreased by 36.5 per cent and 33 per cent respectively. Trips by residents of other countries decreased by 22.5 per cent. In total, 456,500 overseas residents came to Ireland during the month.

Figures for the year to date to the end of April show 1,857,100 trips abroad were taken by Irish residents while 1,541,200 trips were taken by overseas visitors to Ireland.

Fine Gael’s Olivia Mitchell said the figures confirm the tourism industry is in “survival mode”. She described the overall downward trend as “extremely worrying”.

Although some of the fall can be blamed on the disruption caused by the volcano, she said the first three months of the year had no ash cloud and visitor numbers still fell by a “staggering” 23 per cent.

Ms Mitchell said: “We are losing close to 4,000 tourists each day and there does not appear to be any sign of this trend reversing.”

She said the Government’s “determination to continue to levy the departure tax” was hurting tourism”.