Occupy Ireland rather than abroad is tourism plea

A PLEA to Irish people planning holidays this year to ‘Occupy Ireland’’ rather than holiday abroad is being made in an effort to boost the Irish tourism industry.

It is estimated the Irish will spend 50 million bed nights abroad in 2012 while leaving 16 million vacant bed nights at home.

If one in three people were to swap their trip in the sun for one at home it could create 40,000 jobs, said Mike Webster chief executive of Irish booking site GoIreland.com.

Irish people are expected to spend more on trips abroad this year than total income for the Irish tourism industry from both domestic and foreign visitors, he said yesterday.

Total tourism revenues in Ireland were €4.6 billion in 2010 compared with a predicted expenditure of €5 billion by Irish people travelling abroad this year, he added.

GoIreland has estimated that there are some 32 million bed-nights available in Ireland with 50 per cent occupancy compared with an expected 50 million bed-nights spent abroad by Irish people this year.

Bed occupancy is a “tale of one city” with Dublin quite high but everything dropping off “outside the pale”, Mr Webster said.

GoIreland used trends from Fáilte Ireland figures to calculate a fall off in Irish people’s holidays abroad using the latest data available from the CSO Household Survey. This 2009 data puts Irish trips abroad (excluding business travel) at €5.8 billion in expenditure and 57 million bed nights.

Mr Webster admits that the Irish weather will make his appeal more of a challenge as he competes at the Holiday World Show in the RDS, Dublin, this weekend with sun-soaked destinations.

“There is a huge opportunity for Irish people to take this into their own hands and not leave it to the political classes, who will take too long,” he said. In that vein he urged “all of the Cabinet” to “firmly come out and say they will holiday at home”.

He points out that money spent on tourism is worth more to the economy than an increase in retail sales of imported goods.

However, he does not want to “play the green jersey” and is appealing to the pocket by directing to the “extraordinarily good value” available in Ireland.

He estimates that two Irish week-long holidays and two mini-breaks could be taken for the same price as a family holiday abroad.

There is room for change in the way domestic tourism is marketed to Irish people away from the image of people running on the beach to a more realistic picture, he said.

“Show people that they can get into the car and they are only an hour and a half away from a week’s holiday. We need to highlight the simplicity of it and the value,” he said.

As for the weather this summer his prediction is more optimistic than statistic. “I am positive we will have the best weather ,” he said.