Galway Race Festival: attendances nudge up, but betting is down
IF THE Galway Festival is a barometer of the economy at large, the recession is not quite biting yet, but it's nibbling.
After a slow start, the 25,537 attendance on day three was slightly up on last year. Betting figures were again down, however, although not as drastically as on Tuesday when bad weather was a contributory factor.
The number of helicopter trips has fallen too from last year. But outside the racecourse, the city seems to be shrugging off the downturn, so far.
Galway Chamber of Commerce said that while hotels may have had to work a little harder for business this year, all rooms in the city were full.
"There's a slight flexibility that mightn't have been there in 2007," a spokeswoman said. "You might have places offering special deals, and I heard of someone who managed to get a room in one of the top hotels as recently as Sunday. But there's no dramatic slow down."
She conceded that, away from the city's main drag of Shop Street and Quay Street and beyond, the hotels most associated with the festival, places could be "quiet enough" in the evenings.
Helicopter traffic yesterday was down slightly on previous years, with 87 aircraft licensed to operate between Galway city and Ballybrit, compared with 93 last year. The number of flights was also down, according to Tony Gibson, operations manager at Galway airport. He put the reduction in trips to and from the racecourse at 8 per cent, while other helicopter flights within the city's airspace were down 30 per cent.
Combined Tote and bookmaker betting figures totalled €4.5 million yesterday, down about €800,000 on last year.