Strong performance from major markets delivers 7 million visitors in 2013, with promise of more to come. Industry more bullish than at any time in last 5 years. British market grew for first time in 5 years.
This submission by ITIC aims to influence the forumation of a national tourism policy which will provide the foundation for a new strategic plan to underpin investment and expansion of the tourism sector.
In 2011, the Irish tourism industry achieved a modest level of growth following three years of steep decline, and the improvement achieved in 2011 was consolidated in 2012, albeit with little further increase. More encouragingly, the figures for the first 5 months of 2013 show a gain of over 6% in visitor numbers over the same period in 2012.
Ireland, as an island tourism destination is very heavily dependent on access by air. 88% of Ireland’s 6.5 million overseas visitors arrive here by air. The connectivity provided by aviation is the lifeblood of Irish tourism, with just over 2,100 flights per week on non-stop scheduled services connecting 208 city pairs.
The continuation of the lower VAT rate introduced in 2011 is critically important to allow the nascent recovery gain traction. On behalf of the tourism industry, ITIC makes the case that not only is this extension vitally important, it also makes sense.
The Costs of Doing Business 2012 includes detailed cost profiles to assess the importance of various costs to 17 manufacturing and services sectors. It includes a wide range of benchmarks which measure Ireland’s cost performance vis-à-vis our key competitors for trade and investment.
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