UNITED KINGDOM: Negative Impact Of Brexit On Tourism Is Accelerating

Fianna Fail spokesperson on Tourism Robert Troy TD has warned that up to 10,000 jobs in the tourism industry are at risk as a result of the ongoing turmoil caused by Brexit.

Deputy Troy pointed out that the latest figures available from the Central Statistics Office show that British tourist arrivals to Ireland are down 6% for the period December to February.

“The tourism industry has been hit hard by the fallout associated with Brexit,” he said.

“The weakening of the sterling, coupled with the uncertainty surrounding the ongoing negotiations, has resulted in the Irish tourism industry facing its biggest challenge since the global recession.

“The latest figures made available by the CSO show British tourist arrivals to Ireland declined by 6% between December and February but what’s even more alarming is the fact that, looking at February alone, there was a decline of 22% compared to the previous year.

“This demonstrates that the negative impact of Brexit on the tourism industry is accelerating. If this trend continues then there will be 850,000 fewer arrivals from Britain to Ireland.

“The tourism industry employs up to 220,000 people in Ireland. The Irish Tourist Industry Confederation estimate that some 10,000 jobs are at risk as a result of the uncertainty caused by Brexit.

“The government needs to take action to protect the tourism industry from the ill-winds associated with Brexit.

“Failure to do so will set the industry back many years considering 41% of total overseas visitors to Ireland arrive from Britain.

“Minister for Tourism Shane Ross’s failure to bring forward a new overarching tourism policy document aimed at dealing with the consequences of Brexit is deeply worrying.

“This should be a top priority for his Department and he should be coming forward with a plan to limit the impact of Brexit alongside growing Ireland’s reputation as a tourism destination abroad to allow the industry to continue expanding,” concluded Deputy Troy.

IRELAND: 10.5 Million Visitors Will Have Visited Ireland By End Of 2016

2016 is set to be the best ever year for Irish tourism, surpassing all previous records.

According to Tourism Ireland's latest estimates, 10.5 million people will have visited the island of Ireland by the end of this year.

It represents an increase of 11% on 2015, with growth recorded from all markets.

Revenue generated by international visitors is expected to be €5.4bn, a 10% increase over last year.

Tourism Ireland says a number of factors contributed to the rise, including an expansion of flights from the US, Germany and the Middle East, along with strong economies in key source markets.

However, Britain remains Ireland' s largest market for overseas tourism, and a weaker sterling is impacting on value for money in Ireland.

While acknowledging the challenge posed by the Brexit fallout, Tourism Ireland says it hope to build on this year's performance next year, and plans to grow overseas tourism revenue by over 4.5% in 2017.

Minister for Tourism Shane Ross described as "complete nonsense" claims he has not contributed to the tourism portfolio.

IRELAND: Visiting Your Grand Mother Is Not Tourism !

RYANAIR’S marketer says that Irish tourism chiefs should spend more advertising money on growing European markets – and focus less on US and UK travellers.

Speaking at the Annual Tourism Policy Workshop in Dromoland Castle, Kenny Jacobs, chief marketing officer at the budget carrier, said there is a “massive over-dependence on visitors from the US and the UK”.

“There’s an incredible lack of Germans and Spanish and Italians,” he said.

Jacobs argued that tourism bigwigs have a “very Anglo way of looking at things”, and they assume travellers come here because “they love the smell of turf and wonderful places like Bunratty”.

“We will always say people come here because they love mystical Ireland and it’s absolutely wonderful,” he said.

“If you graph the visitors from the US to the exchange rate to the dollar, it’s purely driven by Ireland being cheap to come to when the dollar is strong.”

He noted that the bulk of UK visitors coming into the country are the likes of “Noel and Liam Gallagher coming from Manchester to visit family and friends”.

Jacobs suggested that Ireland should focus on developing its tourist products and attractions for travellers from mainland Europe, particularly Germany, and warned that Scotland is currently siphoning off those visitors.

Ryanair is currently looking to ramp up its share in the German market and earlier this month announced that it will base two aircraft in Frankfurt, a traditional stronghold for carrier Lufthansa, to serve flights around the continent.

On Dublin’s hotel crunch, Jacobs urged Minister for Tourism Shane Ross to bring “25% more hotel beds” into the capital over the next three years.

Ryanair “will do its bit” to get tourists to the island, he said, “but if they can’t get decent places to stay, the whole thing isn’t going to work”.

Jacobs said Irish tourism bigwigs should stop “talking the hind legs off the donkey” and do a “never-done-before deal with Airbnb” for travellers that want to stay with an Irish family.

Unsurprisingly, given his boss Michael O’Leary’s outspoken stance on pay claims, among many other things, Jacobs called public sector pay increases “absolute lunacy” and warned that if the government “caves in” to demands, “a smaller cheque will be given to Tourism Ireland every single year”.

He told Fora that the airline expects to have a long haul transfer deal with Aer Lingus in place by the end of 2017.