- Business up for 51pc of accommodation providers
- Heat wave boosted domestic tourism
Failte Ireland‘s barometer of 500 tourism businesses around the country shows 51pc of the tourism industry is expecting their business to increase in 2018, down 6pc on last year to the lowest level since 2012.
While hotels are optimistic and the industry reports an especially strong performance in the numbers of American and German tourist visiting Ireland, B&Bs are dealing with a decline in visitors from Britain.
- 51pc of paid service accommodation sector – including hotels, guesthouses and B&Bs say visitor levels are up in 2018.
- 54pc of hotels say visitor levels are up in 2018.
- 62pc of hotel operators say the American market is up on 2017.
- 45pc of hotel operators say the German market is up on 2017.
- weather-dependent sectors such as caravan and camping, golf and attractions said the fine summer weather boosted the domestic market.
- 23pc of B&Bs have had more visitors in 2018 and 34pc recorded a decrease due to declines in the British and six county markets, and the impact of low-priced competition.
- Border counties continue to be set apart with 47pc saying they are affected by the decline in sterling, and Brexit compared to 21pc in the rest of the country.
- Visitors from the six counties are down -22pc for border counties, and -8pc for the rest of the country.
- 64pc of businesses also say that tourism agency supports have been a contributing factor to their success.
- Sentiment in the industry is less positive than in recent post-crisis years; but Failte Ireland says it is still healthy and higher than anything recorded pre-2013.
Commenting on barometer findings, Fáilte Ireland’s CEO Paul Kelly said that businesses reflect what has been a record year for tourism numbers. It is clear there are concerns brewing around the drop in business from Britain and Northern Ireland as well as the potential impact Brexit may have. Northern counties have been much more significantly impacted by the decline in the Northern Irish visitor market, and are certainly more exposed to any future challenges created by Brexit.”
- See here for summary
- .The full comprehensive Tourism Barometer can be accessed HERE
| 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | |
| Up | 15 | 28 | 39 | 41 | 60 | 62 | 70 | 72 | 57 | 51 |
| Same | 11 | 25 | 31 | 25 | 27 | 23 | 23 | 19 | 29 | 30 |
| Down | 74 | 47 | 30 | 35 | 13 | 15 | 7 | 9 | 15 | 18 |
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