More Good News For Irish Tourism

New Figures Show Increases In German, British, Canadian And U.S. Visitors

By Colm Heatley

Tourism in Ireland increased by almost 13% in the first quarter of 2006 when compared to the same period last year, according to figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

The figures show that visitors from the USA, Canada, Britain and Germany had increased and that in total 2,040,800 trips were made to Ireland in the first four months of 2006 compared to 1,810,400 for the same period in 2005.

Visitors from Britain rose by 12%, while US and Canadian tourist figures rose by just 2%.

In 2005 there was a 10% drop in visitors from North America.

Australian and French tourist numbers dropped by 13,000 and 20,000 respectively. Immigration from eastern Europe also played a role in the new figures, which showed that visitors from Poland have doubled since last year.

This is largely attributed to family and friends visiting Polish people who have settled in Ireland.

A spokesman for the Ministry for Tourism said the figures were positive but admitted more needed to be done to increase visitor numbers from the most lucrative market, the USA.

"These are positive figures which show that Ireland continues to perform well in the global tourist market," said the spokesman.

"We are aware that visitor numbers from the US need to increase".

The CSO figures also show that Irish people are traveling abroad in larger numbers than ever before.

1,890,700 Irish people traveled abroad in the first quarter of this year, a 14.2% rise on the same period in 2005.

Despite the increase in visitors Eamon McKeon, director of the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation (ITIC), warned of reading too much into them.

"The first quarter of the year is traditionally very quiet and is often not a good barometer of how the year will shape up," he said.

Mr McKeon said that the challenge facing the government was to address the 'two separate tourist markets' in Ireland.

"Dublin is getting the lion's share of tourists coming to Ireland according to all the data that we have," he said.

"It is getting the weekend city break market and often tourists who visit Dublin don't leave the city confines.

"Effectively that means that areas in the rest of the country aren't getting the type of revenue that they need.

"That is particularly true in the west of Ireland where numbers are falling.

"It is effectively those rural areas which need tourism most which are being hit hardest, the government needs to address this".

A recent report carried out by the ITIC found that tourists were dissatisfied with the level of services being offered in Ireland and that many didn't venture into the west of Ireland.

The ITIC report also found that the growth in the tourism industry had slowed considerably since the late 1990s and called on the government to spend more money promoting Ireland overseas, particularly in the US.

However Tourism Ireland welcomed the CSO figures and said they painted a bright picture of the industry in Ireland.

"With events such as the Ryder Cup playing in Ireland's favour, the outlook is certainly more positive, but there is still some way to go," said chief executive Paul O'Toole.