Commenting on new figures published by the CSO for overseas arrivals to Ireland for January to October 2019, Tourism Ireland CEO Niall Gibbons said, "[These] figures from the CSO indicate that overseas arrivals increased by 2.2% in the first ten months of 2019, almost 203,000 more than in January-October 2018.
"2019 has presented a mixed picture for Irish tourism and this is reflected in [these] CSO figures. We've seen a small increase in arrivals from Britain (+1%), a modest performance from both mainland Europe (+2.7%) and North America (+2.4%), and arrivals from long-haul markets up 5.7%. However, North America has shown a weaker pattern as the year unfolds – down 8.8% for the month of October alone. The decision by Norwegian to discontinue its transatlantic services in September 2018 meant the removal of almost 5,300 airline seats per week between North America and Ireland.
"The figures very much reflect feedback from our industry partners on the ground, who've seen weaker demand this year. The continued uncertainty around Brexit is giving rise to consumer concern in Britain and some mainland European markets. There's also been a deterioration in air access capacity this year."
"End-Of-Year Kick-Start Promotional Campaigns"
Gibbons added, "The additional funding allocated to Tourism Ireland in Budget 2020, in response to the Brexit challenge for Irish tourism, means that Tourism Ireland is rolling out a number of end-of-year kick-start promotional campaigns right now in the US, Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and the Nordic countries to kick-start our promotional effort and position us well for 2020. Next week, we will outline our plans for 2020, when we will be pulling out all the stops to ensure that the island of Ireland continues to increase its share of the global travel business."
© 2019 Hospitality Ireland – your source for the latest industry news. Article by Dave Simpson. Click subscribe to sign up for the Hospitality Ireland print edition.
