MARKETING IRELAND:DOMESTIC TOURISM and Ireland as an international destination face huge challenges this year. More than eight million people visited Ireland in 2007, an increase of 27 per cent since 2000, but in 2009 the trend is expected to reverse.
Nearly half of our visitors in 2007 were British, but the strength of the euro against sterling has already created the perception that Ireland is an expensive destination, and it wouldn't be surprising to see fewer British visitors in 2009.
Visitors in 2007 cited the cost of living as a major disadvantage of an Irish holiday, along with the weather and bad roads, according to the Central Statistics Office's Tourism Trends 2007report.
No wonder visitors to Ireland were already spending less time here: 7.3 nights on average, down slightly from 2000.
Visitors to Ireland in 2007 said the best things about their holidays were the people and the scenery.
The top destinations for Irish people travelling within Ireland were our national parks (28 per cent), houses and castles (26 per cent) and spas (20 per cent). Water sports were the top activity (24 per cent), followed closely by walking (21 per cent).
But overseas visitors' favourite activity was hiking and hillwalking, with 511,000 enjoying this, compared with 304,000 in 2000. Coming to Ireland for the golf saw growth in 2007 compared with a post-9/11 low of 95,000, in 2002, but it still has not recovered from its pre-9/11 high of 306,000 golfing visitors, in 2000.