UK tourists find Ireland less exciting - survey

The majority of British holidaymakers perceive Ireland as less exciting and less exotic than other destinations, a tourism survey has found.

The Tourism Ireland survey was prompted after a 1 per cent fall-off visitor numbers from Britain last year.

It found that although Ireland continued to enjoy a very high satisfaction rating with those who have visited, many saw no compelling reason to make a return trip.

Ireland continued to appeal in terms of people, culture and place, but "these alone are not strong enough motivators to drive British visitors to these shores," it said

British holidaymakers across all categories are being increasingly attracted to many of the new Eastern European and long-haul destinations now becoming available to them.

Great Britain provides 64 per cent of visitors to the island of Ireland and is our single largest as well as nearest market.

But the survey found our proximity has contributed to some less favourable perceptions of Ireland involving bad weather, the attitude that it is not different or exotic enough and that one can visit Ireland at any time.

Tourism Ireland chief executive Paul O'Toole said the perception of Ireland as a less-than-exotic holiday destination, coupled with intense competition from other destinations, "poses a significant but not insurmountable challenge" for Irish tourism.

Mr O'Toole said: "Ireland has enjoyed phenomenal growth in visitor numbers from Great Britain over the past eight years. . . . Numbers have grown by almost one million since 1997 and a record 4.6 million visitors came to Ireland from Great Britain in 2003.

"However, while the volume of visitors undoubtedly grew, this growth masked an underlying trend toward shorter stays leading to a fall in overall bed nights. This impacted particularly badly in the regions outside Dublin," he added.

Mr O'Toole said: "What is coming through is that we need to tempt the British visitor with a new and exciting range of offers and products."