Nine per cent fall in overseas visitors to midlands last year

Overseas visitor numbers to the midlands fell by nine per cent during 2009, figures from the Irish Hotels Federation annual report reveals. However, the decline is not as steep as in most other areas of the country. The Shannon area suffered the largest fall in overseas numbers in 2009 (down 27%) followed by the West (17%), South East, South West and North West (each down 15%). Only the Dublin region (6%) recorded a lower fall than the midlands. The figures were revealed at the federation's annual conference in Galway this week. The report portrayed an industry in crisis with hoteliers struggling to deal with decimated revenues and extremely difficult trading conditions which show no sign of being resolved. Total tourism revenues collapsed by 17% to €5.2 billion in 2009, their lowest level since 2004 with the British tourist market performing disastrously. Chief Executive John Power stated that 2009 will regrettably, be remembered as the year when the industry dropped almost one million visitors and €1 billion revenue. According to Mr Power, the drop in revenues was principally due to a 12% decline in overseas visitor numbers to 6.5 million in 2009 and a corresponding reduction of €900 million in the value of foreign exchange earnings of the sector. This was coupled with a drop in domestic trips of approximately 5% and a resultant reduction in revenue of approximately 9%. The high dependence on the home market continued with 70% of hotel bednights now coming from the island of Ireland. The number of British visitors at just over three million was at the lowest level since 1997, down 16%. Mr Power stated that the greatest challenge facing Irish tourism was how to recover share of the British market - Ireland's most important source of tourism: "Demand dropped across all markets but was particularly severe from Britain. The number of British holiday visitors had been stable at approximately 1.7 million per annum over the past 10 years, before falling by 10% in 2008 and a further 16% in 2009." According to Mr Power, in contrast to previous recoveries from downturns in demand for travel, the rebound this time is expected to be gradual over a period of several years. Most forecasts for travel and tourism suggest an overall modest rate of global growth in 2010 with the most optimistic expecting a demand increase of up to 3%. This would suggest it will take several years for recovery to pre-2008 levels of demand. Notwithstanding the downturn, tourism remains Ireland's most important indigenous industry, making a direct contribution of 4% to overall GNP in 2009 and supporting an estimated 200,000 jobs, of which 54,000 are in employed in the hotels and guesthouse sector alone. With an estimated 1.9 million people presently at work in Ireland, tourism expenditure supports over 11% of those in employment.