ITIC predicts delayed recovery
A major report was published today by ITIC titled, A Changed World for Irish Tourism – facing up to the challenges of recovery.
The report says that Irish tourism faces an ongoing difficult trading period due to anaemic economic recovery in its main source markets. It recommends, among other things, a strategy of greater focus on the top 4 producing overseas source markets, Britain, the United States, Germany and France.
The ITIC commissioned report was undertaken by Tourism & Transport Consult International Ltd (TTC). ITIC spoke about the report’s findings with principal author and Managing Director of TTC, Noel Sweeney. Click on the image below to hear what he had to say.
For a copy of the full report CLICK HERE.
For a copy of the Executive Summary CLICK HERE.
If you would like to comment on anything you’ve heard here, leave a comment below!
July 22nd 2010
July 27th, 2010 at 10:44 am
Well done to ITIC for commissioning this excellent and comprehensive report on the current state of the industry. I would have liked to have seen more discussion on the quality of the product. I feel that there is a certain complacency about how good a destination we are, particularly as all the statistics appear to support this hypothesis. The cost of incidentals is still too high compared with other strong tourist destinations. An €8 parking charge at the Cliffs of Moher and €8.50 to see the Book of Kells are perfect examples and an article in yesterday’s Irish Times highlighted the downturn in visitors to paid for attractions and a strong upsurge of visitors to non paying attractions. This should be setting off alarm bells. The Irish tourism product has become quite mixed and is in danger of offering a poor overall experience. For example, fortunately most peoplel now have mobile phones as I would hate to see a tourist having to use a phone box on O’Connell Street – ugh!
On a recent visit to San Francisco the locals would have given us a good run for our money as being the friendliest destination. Seniors are encouraged to become voluntary tourism ambassadors and there were even volunteer ushers in the Opera House.
Our tourism industry is dependent on the local population for its support and we should be working harder in this area if we are to hold our identity as the island of a hundred thousand welcomes and it should be remembered that the overseas visitors returning home are the generators of our badly needed new tourists for the future.