Foreign earnings from tourism are expected to hit €5 billion this year, up 12% on last year's figures and final visitor numbers of 7.3 million - up 9% are being projected by Fáilte Ireland. Those figures come from the tourism body's annual review, due to be published today.
Fáilte Ireland's chairman Michael Cawley says that 2014 was a very good year for tourism and while not quite a record year, the industry is pushing towards the record numbers recorded in 2007. 2014 did see a record number of visitors from North America and the only market which has yet to meet the heights of previous years was the UK - the country's largest tourist market, Mr Cawley says. Air access figures for next year already indicate a record amount of visitors coming to the country, which represents about 6% growth.
Mr Cawley says the UK figures remains challenging due to the fact that Britain increased its air passenger duty from £5 in 2007 to £13 per single flight. This has had a "devastating" effect on not just air access into Ireland but on access from the UK to many of its traditional holiday destinations and holidays from the UK generally are at a lower level than they were in the peak days of 2007-2008. The abolition of the aviation tax in Ireland has been a major boon for the tourism industry, as has the cut in the hospitality VAT rate. Mr Cawley says the Government has "a real handle" on what is needed for policy in the sector, adding that he hoped those advantages to the country's competitiveness continues.
On value for money, the Fáilte Ireland chairman says that 60% of visitors now rank Ireland as being competitive, adding that while this is a big improvement on the 40% seen in 2009, we still have a long way to go. He points out that it is a far easier to retain existing customers who have a good value for money experience than to go out and search for new customers who are turned off by an expensive experience here.
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MORNING BRIEFS - Internet-based taxi and lift-sharing service Uber hit passengers fleeing Sydney's central business district with minimum fares of 100 Australian dollars in the immediate aftermath of the hostage-taking there. Uber has apologised, offered free journeys and said it will refund customers who were charged under its "surge-pricing" protocol which kicks in to hike prices when the service sees a sudden spike in demand. The price of a journey from central Sydney would have been more than three times higher than normal levels as a result of surge pricing.
*** A former PriceWaterhouseCoopers employee in Luxembourg was arrested over the weekend and has been charged with leaking documents. Thousands of confidential records detailing deals between blue-chip companies such as Pepsi, Apple and Ikea and tax authorities in Luxembourg have been leaked over the past two months through the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The trove of what has become known as LuxLeaks has revealed the methods by which those companies, including a number of Irish firms, avoided billions of euros in corporation tax. The former PwC staffer, who has not been named, has been charged - among other alleged offences - with theft, breach of confidentiality and violation of trade secrets.
