“Competitive holiday offers became more important for the British, and Southern Europe as an alternative destination was cheaper than the comparatively expensive Ireland........ The decrease in British visitors was not compensated for by the rapidly increasing but less numerous Continentals”
Sound familiar? Perhaps a commentary on the drop off in British visitors in the recently published ITIC report ‘A Changed World for Irish Tourism’ www.itic.ie or a quotation from a recent media interview given by a Bord Fáilte or Tourism Ireland executive?
No, but rather an analysis on the downturn in British visitors to Ireland between 1969 and 1972, when numbers of British visitors slumped by 20% following the outbreak of the ‘troubles’ in Northern Ireland. However, the author of the 1979 report[1] also draws attention to the declining competitiveness of the Irish product!
The rate of rapid growth from mainland Europe, the rate of decline of the British market and the more modest rate of growth in North Americans over the period 1965 to 1974 is eerily similar to the rate of change in visitor arrivals over the past decade. Of course the scale was quite different. In1974, for instance, just under 1.3 million overseas visitors came to Ireland - 820,000 from Britain, 252,000 from North America, 165,000 from mainland Europe and 28,000 from other areas. Last year Ireland welcome 6.5million visitors from overseas, of whom 2.9 million were holiday visitors.
Irish tourism has always leaned heavily on the large market next door, although over time the relative importance of the volume of British visitors has declined from two out of every three in 1974 to about one out of every two at present. However, the focus on regaining the top producing volume market was equally strong in the 1970s as it is today.
The author of the 1979 report concludes:
“The main problem of Irish tourism emerging from the statistics is the stagnation of overnight tourism since 1968 and the decrease in 1972. It is not only the Ulster crisis which is responsible for this development. Increasingly it was caused by the absence of British visitors.... Other likely factors for the decline include the weakness of the pound and keen price competition from less expensive Mediterranean holiday countries. The increasing number of Continentals, as well as the slightly increasing number of home holidaymakers, have not yet been able to catch up with the decrease in British visitors.”
So, does anything change? I hear you ask.
[1] Geographical Aspects of Tourism in the Republic of Ireland, H.J.Plettner, Social Science Research Centre, University College Galway, 1979.
