TripAdvisor has just published its top destinations for 2010. Ireland does not do well here.

TripAdvisor Travellers Choice Awards are based on the millions of real and unbiased reviews and opinions from travellers on TripAdvisor.com. The winners were determined by a combination of travellers destination comments, favourite places, and overall destination popularity on TripAdvisor.

So say TripAdvisor.

Galway did make it into the top 25 destinations in Europe at number 23, with the note that the best thing about Galway is that you can walk everywhere.

Belfast made it into the top 25 destinations in the United Kingdom at number 16. Belfast has grown into a cosmopolitan destination and become a popular weekend break spot, the guide tells us.

But overall a disappointing representation for Ireland, and a stark reminder that consumer generated media is becoming an important part of the tourism distribution network. This is something which will be addressed in some depth in ITIC’s research project Tourism & Travel Distribution in a Changed World, which we expect to be completed by early July.

Mind you London also failed to make the top 25 World destinations which caused almost as much agnst there as the talks on forming the new coalition Government. Even among UK destinations London only ranked 4th behind Edinburgh, Brighton and York. So there’s work to be done ahead of the Olympics.

Maybe the real message here is that businesses and destinations should be asking satisfied guests to post a comment on TripAdvisor.

CLICK HERE to view TripAdvisor’s top traveller destinations for 2010.

If you would like to comment on anything you’ve read here, leave a comment below!

May 17th 2010

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Such are the anguished cries of much of our media and many of our Politicians that it can only be a matter of time until we see the sandwich-boards return to Grafton Street proclaiming the end is nigh.

Sometimes it seems we are only happy when we have something to moan about, and of course there has been lots of subject matter around of late. But all too frequently, haste to show apparent knowledge of complex issues can result in poor analysis, and balance is lost. In a week which saw a big bold rescue scheme for the euro, and coalition Government come to Britain, there were also some reasons to be cautiously upbeat about the future, but you would be forgiven for thinking the opposite.

So to bring balance to what was a momentous week which will shape recovery, ITIC spoke with Economist Jim Power, and here is his balanced view. This ezine is a little longer than usual, but it attempts to deal with complex issues in a manner that is straightforward, and which shows that the week’s events probably had more good new than bad.

When the 10th anniversary of European Monetary Union (EMU) was celebrated a short while ago, the majority consensus was that it had been a resounding success. However, over the past year the single currency area has experienced its first major challenge in the shape of the Greek crisis and the consequent instability in the financial markets of the peripheral European economies, such as Spain, Portugal and Ireland.

In the week ending May 7th, the whole euro project was pulled to the edge of a precipice and its survival started to be questioned in a reasonably serious way for the first time since it commenced back in 1999. Bond markets, from which countries that run fiscal deficits have to borrow, lost faith in the ability of a number of Euro Zone countries to manage their affairs properly and basically refused to lend money to them. In other words, markets effectively seized up. To bring the system back from the precipice required a grand gesture from Brussels and thankfully a grand gesture did emerge in the shape of a radical financial support package worth up to €750 billion, backed up by the EU and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). While it has to be hoped that this package will not be availed of, at least markets now realise that there is a significant lump of money on standby to bail out countries who might at some stage find it difficult to raise money on global bond markets. As a consequence, markets have settled down again, albeit with a still uneasy sense of calm. It is now incumbent on high borrowing countries to do whatever is necessary to reduce borrowing as quickly as possible, and that includes Ireland.

The serious fault lines of the whole euro project have been exposed by the Greek crisis that has emerged since last October. From day one it was always going to be very difficult to manage a currency and monetary union with initially 12 and now 16 very different countries and very different political systems, without a strong system of political and fiscal governance at the centre of the project. In theory, fiscal governance was provided for under the terms of the Stability & Growth pact which was designed to prevent governments from running deficits in excess of 3% of GDP and outstanding government debt in excess of 60% of GDP. While this fiscal discipline is strong in theory, the reality is that it is not backed up by a robust political structure that would make it effective. Hence it has been ignored by some member countries.

The Euro Zone now has a government deficit of around 7% of GDP, but countries like Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Greece are all well above the average, and the prudent countries like Germany are now being asked to bail out the rest. German voters are justifiably not happy about providing financial support to countries that have not behaved prudently. The European Central Bank’s key mandated responsibility is to ensure price stability in the Euro Zone and to preserve the stability of the euro.  The Germans are seriously annoyed at the announcement that the ECB would if necessary buy the bonds of Euro Zone countries, in the event of those countries not being in a position to borrow money on capital markets. The French are strong supporters, but the Germans believe it will threaten future price stability. In reality the two key Euro Zone powers, France and Germany, are now quite divided on how the Euro Zone should be managed and this is potentially a recipe for future instability in the zone.

The reality is that for a monetary union to function properly there needs to be much more centralised fiscal policy making and a much more centralised political governance at the centre of Europe. This is not politically popular in most countries as it would imply national governments being forced to cede power to the centre. The EU Commission has laid out plans to exert much greater control over national budgets. This is totally logical and desirable if the single currency is to be truly successful, but unfortunately the logic is lost on some.

While the current economic, financial and political instability and uncertainty is not on the whole positive for anybody in the Euro Zone, there are certain aspects of the crisis that will certainly suit Ireland:

- Up to September 2007 sterling had been quite stable against the euro for some considerable period of time around the 68 pence level. It then fell by over 46% against the euro by the end of 2008, and during 2009 it continued to trade very weakly against the euro. However, against a background of the recent Euro Zone instability, the euro has fallen by almost 9% against sterling since the end of 2009. Furthermore, the euro has lost almost 17% of its value against the dollar since December 2009;

- The euro continues to lose the confidence of markets and is steadily ceding ground to the dollar and sterling. Sterling now has the added advantage of having a government in place that should prove to be relatively stable and which should tackle the serious deficit in the UK public finances. Provided the new government does what needs to be done, sterling could well have the potential to appreciate further against the euro, as could the dollar;

- A weaker euro is unambiguously good news for Irish exporters and for Irish tourism;

- In value terms in 2009, the United Kingdom accounted for 16% of total Irish merchandise exports and the United States accounted for 21%. When combined with the gradual improvement in Irish cost competitiveness, this fall in the value of the euro should give an additional welcome boost to Irish exporters who have been operating in a very challenging environment. The strengthening of sterling will be especially good news for indigenous exporters who have a heavier dependence on the UK market, particularly the very important Agri-food sector;

- Although the Euro Zone economy is gradually recovering as evidence by the increase of 0.2% in first quarter growth, there is still significant spare capacity and a lack of inflationary pressures in the Euro Zone. Consequently, there is no pressure on the ECB to increase official interest rates for the foreseeable future. Furthermore, in an environment of such instability in the Euro zone, the ECB cannot contemplate tightening interest rates, particularly if the countries with serious deficits take measures to reduce them through a combination of public expenditure cutbacks and tax increases. The persistence of low interest rates represents unambiguously positive news for the Irish economy;

- For the tourism sector, recent currency trends represent very good news. In 2009, visitors from Great Britain accounted for 47% of total visitors into Ireland, and the US accounted for almost 13% of total visitors. For visitors from both of those destinations, the recent weakness of the euro will make Ireland a more attractive and competitive location. That is badly needed.

There is an old saying that it is an ill wind that blows no good. The current instability in the Euro Zone is having a negative impact on the euro, but this has the potential to give a significant boost to the export and tourism sectors of the economy. Despite this, it is still very incumbent on Irish policy makers to continue to correct the Exchequer deficit and improve the overall competitiveness of the Irish economy. Both of these conditions are vital for the future prosperity of an Irish economy that is likely to have technically emerged from recession in the first quarter of this year.

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May 13th 2010

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Over the last decade or so, the growth in low-cost airlines and the opening of the Channel Tunnel put enormous competitive pressure on the Ferry operators, particularly those operating on the Ireland/Great Britain routes.

But substantial investment in fleets, including high-speed ferries, kept the Ferry operators very much in the all important access mix for Irish tourism. Clever marketing exploited the calm advantages of taking the ferry while avoiding the chaos of over crowded airports.

After an initial and perhaps an inevitable loss of market share to the airlines, the ferry business started to claw back some share in 2008 and 2009. Then came the Ash-clouds in 2010, and more people began to appreciate again the safe, secure and high-quality service offered by Ferry travel. Are we witnessing a renaissance of travel by sea once more, particularly from our biggest source market, Britain?

ITIC spoke with Tony Kelly, Marketing Director of Irish Ferries, the largest Ferry operator between Ireland and Britain, and Ireland and Continental Europe.

Click on the image below to hear what he had to say.

If you would like to comment on anything you’ve heard here, leave a comment below!

May 12th 2010

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The downturn last year in the level of demand for travel by Irish residents was not as deep as in the number of inbound tourists. However, we spent less on travel both at home and abroad. These are the latest findings from CSO.¹

The gap between what we earn from tourism and what we spend on overseas travel has widened, leaving a €2 billion negative balance of payment in our national tourism account.

Irish residents made as many trips within Ireland in 2009 as in 2008.
An estimated 8.34 million trips were taken within Ireland by residents last year, unchanged from the previous year. However, the composition of demand by reason for travel showed some year on year changes, with the number of trips to visit friends and relatives marginally up, while holiday/leisure and business trips declined, by 8% and 9% respectively.

While the volume of travel was almost unchanged expenditure on domestic travel was down 10% to €1.39 billion. Of this, €843 million was from holiday/leisure trips, down 18% on the previous year. Spending on business trips was down 16% to €136 million, with VFR trip expenditure down 20% to €171 million.

A total of 26 million overnights were spent away from home, showing little change on the previous year, with the average length of stay holding at 3.1 nights. Over the year the average holiday trip was 3.6 nights, while business and VFR averaged 2.4 and 2.6 nights respectively.

The over 50’s continue to account for just over 2 out of every 5 trips, although the number of trips this age cohort took in 2009 was down 4% to 3.47 million, but the number of nights away from home was unchanged. The number of trips by 20-49 year olds increased by 4% to 3.1 million, with an almost equal increase in nights away from home, while the under 19 age group generated 1.8 million trips with a slight decrease in their average length of trip.

The Southern & Eastern region (Dublin, East, South East, South West and Mid West) was the destination for two thirds of the demand, with the balance going to the Border, Midland and Western region – unchanged from the year before. Domestic travel expenditure appears to have held up better in the Border, Midland & Western region at €468 million, down only 3% on the previous year, compared to a drop of 13.5% in spending to €922 million in the Southern & Eastern region.

The pattern of demand for the various categories of accommodation in 2009 was almost the same as in 2008, with hotels being used on 41% of all trips, generating just under 30% of bed nights away from home.

Homes of family and friends was the accommodation choice for 35% of trips, accounting for 31% of bed nights, with own holiday homes accounting for a further 12% of bed nights.

Domestic market bed nights spent in Guesthouses/B&Bs declined by 14%, while the volume of nights spent in camping and caravanning fell by 21% last year, the latter appears to have more to do with shortening length of stay than loss of market share, perhaps weather related.

As you would expect the average length of stay tends to be longest in rented/self catering accommodation and own holiday homes, and shorter in paid serviced accommodations.

The internet continues to grow in popularity and is now the top preferred method of booking – last year 26% of trips booked accommodation online accounting for 22% of total nights away from home. The use of the internet as a means of making reservations has almost doubled over the past 3 years, to over 2.2 million bookings last year. Direct bookings by phone have slipped somewhat in recent years but the phone is still the preferred means of booking for 24% of trips, handling 23% of bed nights.

Domestic holidays down 8% in 2009.
Irish residents tried to keep up the number of holiday trips within Ireland in 2009, but cut back on average expenditure per trip. The number of these holiday trips slipped by 8% to just over 4 million last year, but the value of such trips was down by 18% to €843 million. The volume of holiday demand, despite the downturn, is still very sizeable and not far off the peak in 2008.

Holiday trips taken during the peak quarter (July–September) were down only 5%, although expenditure showed a deeper cut down 21% to €353million. The downturn in receipts over the other months was slightly less sharp although still in double figures.

Travel balance of payment gap widens as earnings from incoming tourism contracts more sharply than spending abroad by Irish.
As a nation we spent €2.27 billion more on overseas travel than we earned from overseas visitors in 2009. Last year was another year of an increasing net outflow in the national tourism account with the gap quadrupling over the past four years as Irish residents continued to spend more each year up to 2008 on foreign travel while revenues from overseas visitors have been in decline since 2007.

However, the Irish did tighten their collective foreign travel belts last year spending €900 million less on travel abroad. None-the-less this amounted €6.15 billion spent on overseas travel, down 11% on the previous year. This compares to a total of €3.88 billion spent by out-of state visitors in Ireland, a drop of 19%.

Foreign travel trips out of Ireland down 10.5% with sharpest drop on routes to Europe and North America.
Irish residents took 10% fewer trips overseas last year, with just over 7 million trips of which almost 200,000 were day trips.²

The number of foreign holidays declined by 14% to 4.1 million, while business trips at 731,000 were down by a fifth (-21%) on the previous year. VFR travel was only marginally down at 1.76 million trips. It would appear that the number of nights spent away on holiday was cut back by 18%.

Holiday spending by Irish abroad contracted by 17% last year to €4.15 billion, while expenditure on business trips was down by almost a quarter (-23%) to €744. As was the case with the inbound market, VFR outbound travel proved to be the more recession proof with their foreign expenditure down only 2%.

Irish outbound travel on routes to mainland Europe at 3.86 million was down 15% on the previous year, while travel to North America contracted by 23% to 402,000. The aggregate number of Irish travelling on cross-channel routes was only 1% below the previous year at almost 2.8 million. Interestingly, sea routes regained share of the Irish outbound market with an 18% growth to 421,000 passengers, compared to a 4% drop to 2.36 million trips on air services.

If you would like to comment on anything you’ve read here, leave a comment below!

¹Household Travel Survey, Quarter 4 2009 - published April 29th 2010, and Tourism & Travel 2009 - published April 30th 2009
²Based on data from CSO’s Tourism & Travel 2009 (April 30th 2010), without reconcilliation with data from CSO Household Travel Survey Q4 2009 (April 29th 2010)


May 6th 2010

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Escorted coach touring was particularly hard hit when the economic decline first started to emerge in North America.

But coach tour travellers are resilient, and there was always the prospect that this vitally important market sector would rebound quickly once economic recovery started to emerge.

To see if this is actually beginning to happen, ITIC spoke with Marc Kazlauskas, President of Insight Vacations, Europe’s premier escorted tour operator, and a great supporter of Irish tourism for many years.

Click on the image below to hear what he had to say.

If you would like to comment on anything you’ve heard here, leave a comment below.

May 4th 2010

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