Latest figures show that Irish tourism saw year on year growth of 4 % in 2003, as Ireland increased market share and outperformed competitors.
According to Failte Ireland's review of the tourism market last year, Ireland increased overseas visitor numbers by 4% to 6.1 million. Revenue from domestic and overseas visitors was up 5% to €5.2 bn.
These figures put us ahead of the UK, who had a 2% overall visitor increase with some areas like Scotland actually showing a decline. Spain remained stagnant and France declined by 8% on bed nights last year.
The home market proved again to be important with almost three in every four hotel bookings generated by the domestic market.Total expenditure in this sector increased 12% to €1.1 bn, while the number of holiday trips increased by 5% over the first eight months of the year in this sector. Failte Ireland's chairman Gillian Bowler said the domestic market is our largest single market and is no longer the "poor relation in the eyes of operators".
Irish accommodation providers reported their top three concerns last year as high insurance costs (39%), high overheads (36%) and the cost of labour (27%). This contrasts to four years ago when over capacity in tourist accommodation and the need for additional expenditure on marketing and promotion were the main gripes of the industry.
This year the Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism, Mr John O'Donoghue, has allocated a record €31.5m to the tourism marketing fund. Failte Ireland has already introduced an initiative to address the level of insurance costs in Ireland which could lower costs by 30% for eligible enterprises.
Gillian Bowler,though welcoming the year on year 4% growth in the industry, called for the delivery of three major projects to be built without delay ; a new Dublin airport terminal, a national conference centre, and a new sports stadium. "Without these, the picture for 2006 and beyond looks stagnant at vest and the momentum of recent years will not be sustained", warned Bowler.
The Tourism Policy Review group's target is to bring visitor numbers to Ireland to 10 million by 2012.
