The Minister for Tourism, Mr O'Donoghue, has warned golf clubs that charging excessive green fees threatens Ireland's position as the biggest golf destination in Europe. He urged them to exercise restraint when charging non-members for a round of golf.
With some 250,000 golfers visiting Ireland every year, he said high green fees posed a serious risk to a highly lucrative market - golfers are estimated to spend more than €170 million in the Republic every year.
Mr O'Donoghue said he had received negative feedback about poor value for money at some of the State's 411 golf clubs.
He said tour operators and US tourism industry figures had complained to him about high green fees. Many clubs were charging green fees in excess of €100 per round, and some up to €250 "and more" for a single round of golf.
"I'm afraid that some golf clubs are charging high green fees but not providing the level of service expected, given the price," Mr O'Donoghue said.
Fáilte Ireland is writing to individual golf clubs to request they do not increase green fees next year.
Mr O'Donoghue said there was a real danger that golfers would leave the Irish market and visit clubs in Scotland, Wales and Portugal. While hotels, airlines and sea carriers had responded to the economic downturn by reducing prices, Mr O'Donoghue said there had been no response from golf clubs.
He was concerned about high prices in pubs and restaurants, but said such businesses had made some response to demands for reduced prices.
Mr O'Donoghue revealed new figures which show the number of tourists visiting Ireland in the first half of the year increased by 3 per cent. The figures were good given uncertainty surrounding the military build-up to war in Iraq, SARS and continuing unrest in the Middle East. However, there was evidence that some visitors were spending less time in Ireland.
Preliminary estimates produced by Tourism Ireland show the number of tourists visiting the Republic and Northern Ireland from the US grew by 5 per cent to 389,000 in the first half of the year.
Tourists from Britain grew by 3 per cent to 1.65 million. The number travelling from mainland Europe grew by 7 per cent to 649,000.
