Traditional activity holidays such as walking, angling and golfing are close to collapse, senior figures in the tourism industry have claimed.
In a presentation to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Sport and Tourism yesterday, chief executive of North West Tourism Paul McLoone said that the numbers involved in such holidays had dropped by 50 per cent.
"The profile of the angler is someone who is older. Young people are not angling, and what strategy have we got to deal with that?" Mr McLoone asked.
Chief executive of Cork Kerry Tourism Maire Moynihan said that activity holidays such as golf and walking in her area were "way down".
Head of Ireland West Tourism John Concannon said there needed to be innovations in angling and walking tourism.
Mr Concannon said walkers generated five times more in spending than people coming to Dublin for a short city break.
The tourism chiefs also warned of a major decline in the B&B sector, and complained about media coverage of "rip-off" Ireland.
Mr McLoone said tour operators had claimed Ireland was "shooting itself in the foot" with complaints about prices.
He said tour operators had said that "the only negative vibes about prices and rip-offs in Ireland were actually coming from Ireland".
Chairman of North West Tourism Seán McEniff said that media coverage of "rip-off Ireland had created major problems for the industry".
Ms Moynihan said the B&B sector in Cork and Kerry performed poorly in recent years, and "there was no indication that it would do better this year".
Mr Concannon said there had been a 20 per cent decline in the sector in the west.
Mr McLoone maintained that the decline in overnight accommodation in B&Bs in the northwest could be between 25 and 40 per cent.
Chairwoman of Cork Kerry Tourism Georgina Coughlan said that people who in the past would have gone to B&Bs now were going to hotels which had bars, swimming pools and facilities for children.
Meanwhile, Tourism Ireland has indicated that there was major potential for growth in the four- to seven-day "short additional holiday" market as part of its new strategy for increasing visitor numbers from Britain.
The new strategy seeks to reinvigorate the visitor market from Britain , where numbers fell marginally last year.
Tourism Ireland chief executive Paul O'Toole said the new approach would be to highlight the holiday experience in Ireland rather than just promoting the country as a destination.
Clifford Coonan adds: The first Chinese tourists to visit Ireland under new visa rules for tour groups will arrive in Dublin on April 19th for a four-day visit.
The group will be met by the Taoiseach on arrival at Dublin airport from Shanghai.
The sightseers will be the first in what tourism officials hope will be a wave of Chinese tourists to arrive in Ireland.
A group of 50 will travel, and 30 are on the waiting list for the four-day trip, which will cost around €1,800 per person.
"The affluence is evident down here, and it's a market we want to tap into," said Irish consul Nicholas O'Brien in Shanghai.
The newly-wealthy Chinese are the world's second highest-spending tourists, after the Japanese and ahead of the Americans.
