Number of UK visitors fell last year

CLARE will attract more American tourists in 2013 but will be lucky to hold 2012 numbers of British visitors, an industry expert here predicts.
Figures published recently show the number of tourists visiting Ireland from the UK continued to fall last year.
Britain is Ireland’s largest tourism market and in the past year nationally, there were 100,000 fewer arrivals from the UK than in 2011, a drop of 4%.
The figures were contained in the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation (ITIC) End of Year Review 2012 published recently. It showed that while there were 6.5 million overseas arrivals in 2012, this showed little or no growth on 2011. Nationally there was a 2% increase in arrivals from mainland Europe and a similar level of increase from North America. This, however, did not make up for the drop in UK visitors, which remains a worry for tourism interests here with 2.8 million arrivals last year, way down on the 2007 high of more than four million.
“I think we have certainly seen this decrease in Clare too and we are going to continue to see it, despite the great effort being made in terms of marketing Ireland in the UK market. The UK environment is like our own at the moment. Things are very depressed,” said North Clare hotelier and president of the Irish Hotels Federation, Michael Vaughan.
“I read in a review of UK tourism for 2013 that British holidaymakers are seeking to spend more time in the sun. So unless we get the benefit of climate change, I can’t see how they will end up on the Clare coast,” he added.
Mr Vaughan believes there is “a glimmer of hope” in that “the Tourism Recovery Taskforce report published lately, effectively turns our understanding of the UK market on its head and we are going to change the way we try to attract British visitors. That will lead to better outcomes in the long term. We have been treating Ireland as if it was an international destination for UK visitors, whereas UK visitors see Ireland as an extension of their domestic market. That has big implications for how we promote Ireland there.
“The other thing is that the attributes we think are highest in the mind of the tourist like scenery or good food, they are not perceived to be as strong in Ireland as they are in Scotland and in the Lake District so there is lots of work to be done there. If we manage to hold the UK market to 2012 figures in 2013, we will have done a reasonable job,” he continued.
Mr Vaughan predicted a rise in the number of tourists coming here from America in 2013.
“For Clare, the extra transatlantic seats announced in the past few weeks, I believe that will result in a resurgence in the US market. There are 20% more seats into Ireland from the US in the coming year and a lot of those are going into Shannon. That can only be a benefit for us,” he stated.
The ITIC report welcomed the Government’s decision to grant Shannon Airport the long-awaited freedom from the Dublin Airport Authority, noting “it’s a challenging but exciting new era for Shannon and a direction, which has long been pursued by local interests. The restructuring plan calls for ambitious traffic growth which, if achieved, will deliver significant benefits for the tourism industry in the region and the West.”
Mr Vaughan said he believes the changes at Shannon Airport will be good for the region.
“The new airport authority, which came into being this week, is a very positive thing for the county in that we now have an airport that we can all work with in a real way. I hope that tourism interests will galvanise behind the airport and bring in new routes, bringing extra passengers to the area,” he said.
A further positive development in 2013 will be the Gathering, Mr Vaughan continued.
“We are looking forward to the Gathering 2013. Clare has registered a great number of events for this and the steering group in the county is doing tremendous work getting tourists actively involved. I think it will have an impact locally on the county.
“The other thing that will be significant but not until 2014 is the development of the Wild Atlantic Way, which will be a unique part of the selling in County Clare. We have tremendous work to do in the county to develop food trails, walking trails and cycle trails throughout the county. Clare County Council can be proud of the development of coastal walking routes, which is ongoing. There are routes being developed from Loop Head upwards. In 2013, I hope to spearhead a group that will try to develop a greenway in Clare like the one in Mayo. It is my dearest wish to have a greenway from Ennis to Lahinch along the old West Clare railway line. We are planning to investigate the feasibility of that at the moment,” he said.
In looking at the year ahead, Mr Vaughan said he believes the Burren will become even more important in attracting tourists.
“The work ongoing on the Burren Geopark will bear fruits from here on. When we get that whole project integrated, we will have something uniquely saleable I believe. I would say there are green shoots appearing for sustainable growth throughout Clare going forward,” he concluded.