Tourists arriving at Irish airports during the year of the Gathering will be asked exactly where they intend to stay and for how long, as part of a new drive to gain information on regional tourism.
The move follows concern from regional tourism interests that visitors are not moving beyond the large cities and traditional tourist “hot spots”.
While overall visitor numbers rose 4.4 per cent between November and January last, the Irish Hotels Federation, which gathers for its annual conference in Killarney tomorrow, said it is concerned that the increase is concentrated in the larger urban areas, and on specific events.
Hotels federation president Michael Vaughan said it was “shocking how little we know” about contemporaneous visitor numbers that contributed €6 billion to the economy.
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