Visitor numbers are steady - tourist chief

VISITOR NUMBERS are expected to hold up this year, despite the economic downturn, the chairman of Tourism Ireland, Hugh Friel, said yesterday.

“I’m confident that figures will remain much the same as last year, despite challenges such as exchange rates,” he told a tourism industry conference at the Institute of Technology, Tralee.

Competitiveness is now a huge issue, Mr Friel said, urging the industry to pay particular attention to price, service and quality.

Tourism is likely to be compromised over the next few decades because the growth in air traffic is unsustainable, John Tribe, Professor of Tourism at the University of Surrey, told the conference.

The conditions and prospects of tourism workers also need to be considered in successful tourism, Mr Tribe said. The notion of being greeted by a native Irish person is nostalgic in a highly mobile global environment, he added.

Also raised at the conference was the expansion of casinos in Ireland and the potential of gambling for tourism growth. Ivor O’Donovan, of the Waterford Institute of Technology, told delegates that the development of casinos could benefit tourism and help economic regeneration but the Government had to regulate them.