Tourism chiefs are to target bigger spenders this year as part of plans to mitigate the effect of the Dublin Airport passenger cap on growth and build revenue from €7 billion last year out to €9 billion by 2030.
Tourism Ireland outlined its marketing strategy and plans to make Ireland a “bucket list destination” overseas in 2025 at a conference attended by more than 500 industry leaders in Dublin on Tuesday.
The group said overseas visitor spend grew 10 per cent last year, bringing an estimated €7 billion to Ireland. It plans to spend €65 million in more than 13 overseas markets this year as part of plans to achieve average annual growth of 5.6 per cent out to 2030.
It said the target of €9 billion by 2030 could be achieved with “the right strategic supports”, chief among them the review of the passenger cap in Dublin.
Tourism Ireland chief executive Alice Mansergh said she is expecting a “slower start” to 2025 due to the cap being in place for winter. “We’ve already seen it has reduced air seat capacity for the island from North America by 4 per cent and from Britain by 3 per cent,” she told The Irish Times.
“We’ll be focused on spend per trip this year, making sure that if there are issues with volume that those coming in are likely to see more, do more, and therefore spend more. But I think everybody likes to see a fast review of the Dublin Airport cap.”
She said better targeting of the type of tourist Ireland needs would be achieved through the use of new technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse consumer behaviour patterns in more depth.
“We need to understand what are the behaviours of the kind of visitors that are likely to travel across regions and across seasons, who want to stay for longer and do more,” she said. “So we’re looking for people who aren’t looking for a sun holiday but want to get out and about. With our digital advertising we can take into account millions of signals on consumer behaviour to make sure the right message gets to the right people at the right time.
“We also know there are certain types of visitors who do tend to spend more. It’s a big year for golf. The Open is at Royal Portrush, and the Ryder Cup is coming to Adare in 2027, and golfing visitors do tend to stay for longer and spend more.”
Ms Mansergh said costs were also front and centre in the minds of overseas visitors, particularly those coming from Britain and Germany due to the relative health of their economies.
“Costs are definitely on the minds of both consumers overseas and businesses on the ground,” she said. “There have been increases in input costs across hospitality over the past year or two. When businesses are seeing increases in their costs they will either pass those on to the consumer or take the hit on their margins. But some of those margins, particularly for food businesses, are already wafer-thin.
“As we market overseas it’s really notable that for some consumers, like folks in the US, they expect Ireland is going to be great value for money compared to at home. But there are consumers in Britain and Germany who might be a little more worried about the economic outlook in their markets who are more value-conscious at the moment, and for them Ireland looks like less good value.”
- Sign up for the Business Today newsletter and get the latest business news and commentary in your inbox every weekday morning
- Opt in to Business push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Our Inside Business podcast is published weekly – Find the latest episode here
