TRADE FAIR:FEWER AMERICAN tourists will come to Ireland next year because of the weak dollar and other factors, according to delegates at Ireland's largest tourism trade fair, Meitheal 2008, in Dublin this week.
The expected drop in US tourist numbers to Ireland will not be as severe as those in other European countries, however, and Ireland is "going to do better than most", predicted John Concannon, Fáilte Ireland's director of regional development.
"We outperform our weight in the US," he said. "America is tough, driven by the exchange rate. People are looking for good value. That is not to say it is going to be a disaster."
Concannon said that, on the positive side, the number of tourists expected to visit Ireland from Germany and France next year is expected to increase.
More than 200 tourism representatives from around the world attended the fair, organised by Fáilte Ireland in conjunction with Tourism Ireland. They met more than 300 Irish tourism businesses to discuss and agree deals for the 2009 season over two days in Citywest.
Up to 25 meetings, each lasting 15 minutes, were scheduled for every overseas buyer.
A number of delegates said it was like speed-dating as they dashed between tables, networking and forging business alliances.
Hilary Finlay, chief executive of Ireland's Blue Book, which represents country houses, historic hotels and restaurants, said the trend is "fairly positive" from Europe, though the American tour operators are having "a very difficult year".
"Australia is very steady as well, because the Australian dollar is good at the moment . . . The American market is hit through nobody's fault. It's a very cyclical business," she said.
In the US, the phones suddenly stopped ringing last month in the New York offices of Lynett Tours, says another delegate, Ellen McNulty, president of the company, which has specialised in selling tours to Ireland for 30 years.
"January through March we were going great guns," she said. "In April it's as if somebody turned off the telephone." Her business deals with 6,500 travel agents across the US.
At home, some hotels reported "finding a gap" in their business from Monday to Friday, because of the new trend of going away for long weekends, according to Finlay. "It's filling that little [ midweek] gap that is tricky," she said.
According to another conference delegate, Dino Steinkamp, of Dertour in Germany, tourism is being affected by the dollar's being "very weak at the moment" and sterling's being strong.
"It's much more difficult to sell Britain this year," he says. "Ireland is not affected."