'Go west' visitors will be told

VISITOR NUMBERS:THE BODY which represents the Irish tourism industry says there needs to be a "fundamental reassessment" of the west of Ireland to stop the decline in visitors.

The western seaboard has been losing to Dublin over the last decade and reversing that trend will be the subject of a series of workshops over the next fortnight.

The Irish Tourist Industry Confederation (ITIC) said a two-tier tourism market in Ireland now exists. ITIC chief executive Eamonn McKeon said the situation is “serious” enough to merit a new strategic approach.

Meetings will be held in Killarney on Thursday at the Malton Hotel and on Friday at the Dunraven Arms Hotel. On Tuesday week, September 6th, they will be held at the Galway Bay Hotel Salthill, and in Sligo on the following day in the Clarion Hotel.

Hoteliers, BB providers, tour operators and those who run visitor attractions have been invited to partake in a discussion which will form part of a report coming out in the autumn. Among the issues up for discussion will be the marketing of the West to overseas tourists, tourism infrastructure, including air access, and the use of state agencies to bring in visitors.

Mr McKeon says that despite this week’s dramatically improved tourism numbers, the chief beneficiary once again has been Dublin. Bednights – occupancy per person per night – along the western seaboard have fallen from 67 per cent in 1999 to 52 per cent in 2009. They have risen in Dublin by almost the same amount from 20 per cent in 1999 to 37 per cent.

Figures from Deloitte for the first half of 2011 show occupancy rates up by 9.9 per cent in Dublin, revenue per available room up by nearly 16 per cent and the average price hoteliers in Dublin have been able to charge for their room has risen from €77.17 to €81.32.

McKeon said it would be too easy to blame the West’s continuing loss of market share on regional airports which will be losing their public subsidies.

He said every county on the western seaboard, with the exception of Limerick and Leitrim, has an airport and there was a debate as to whether all were needed when the road network had improved.

McKeon said the West used to be able to depend on the domestic market to compensate for the loss, particularly of UK visitors, but that has not been possible because of the recession.