THERE HAVE been calls for the Government to extend free travel in Ireland to all EU citizens over the age of 66 after new figures reveal a slump of over 13 per cent in the number of overseas visitors to the country during this year’s peak holiday season.
The latest overseas travel figures, published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) yesterday, show 123,200 fewer overseas visitors came to the country in August compared with the same month last year. There were 823,100 visits from abroad during the month, compared to 946,300 in August 2008, a drop of 13 per cent.
A year-on-year analysis shows that the number of overseas trips to the country fell below 5 million for the first time since 2005. In the year to the end of August 2009, 4,886,900 trips to Ireland were made, 596,400 fewer (10.9 per cent) than the same 12-month period to the end of August 2008.
The CSO data also revealed Irish residents took 748,600 foreign trips in August 2009, down nearly 11.5 per cent on the same month last year.
The Irish Hoteliers Federation (IHF) reacted angrily to the figures, saying the Government had not taken a “single meaningful action” to recover the situation.
Speaking to The Irish Times, IHF president Matthew Ryan said his members were “very frustrated” because an entire season has been lost since the idea of extending free travel was first proposed last March. The plan would not cost the taxpayer anything as it would be a condition attached to the €350 million in subsidies provided to CIÉ each year.
“We’re very scared that at the moment our domestic market is stretched to the point it can’t go any further, so for us to start getting money back into this country, we need foreign visitors.”
Trips to Ireland from the country’s main visitor market, Britain, saw an especially sharp decline of 25 per cent in numbers crossing the Irish Sea – 369,700 visits compared to 488,400 in August 2008, the CSO figures revealed.
Numbers from mainland Europe fell by just 2.7 per cent (8,100) to 288,500.
The number of visits by residents of Northern America rose by over 7 per cent from 118,200 in August 2008 to 126,600 this year. However, in the year to the end of August, a 2.7 per cent decline in the numbers of visitors from the continent was recorded.
Mr Ryan said if the Government targeted the largely untapped market of 80 million people across the EU over the age of 66, the “action would provide a major boost to attempts to halt the collapse of the market”.
“If it’s not costing us anything to provide a service like this, why not go for it?”
The figures come amid growing pressure on the Government to abolish the air travel tax introduced in March. Last week a mid-term review from the Government’s Tourism Renewal Group called for the removal of the tax, and yesterday the heads of the country’s three major airlines demanded the same.
The chief executives of Ryanair, Aer Lingus and CityJet issued a joint statement saying the tax was hurting tourism. They pointed out that since the €10 tourist tax was imposed on April 1st, monthly traffic at Dublin airport had fallen by 15 per cent.
Fine Gael’s tourism spokeswoman Olivia Mitchell said the figures confirmed the sector was in serious danger and said the air travel tax “was a disaster”.
A spokesman for Fáilte Ireland said the figures were not surprising given the world economic situation. Fáilte Ireland was working with some 2,000 businesses “to help them trade through the current recession, and continue to seize any market position to ensure Ireland gets the most business available”.
