American and Irish visitors are buoying up the tourist numbers in much of Kerry, in an August flush that looks set to continue into September. In Killarney there are high numbers of Irish visitors, Mr Declan Murphy, Kerry tourism officer with Cork Kerry Tourism said. The Irish have heeded Bord Failte's calls to holiday at home, he said.
French and English tourists are also visiting Kerry in large numbers. Israeli visitors are the newest group to the south-west, due to the direct Dublin flights from Israel, Mr Murphy explained. Self-catering accommodation was almost completely booked out for the first two weeks of August in much of the Killarney and south Kerry areas.
Ironically, it may have taken the foot-and-mouth crisis to change the Irish public's perception of tourism, said Mr Murphy. "Tourism until now was treated as pocket money, as a sub-industry, not as serious as IT, for instance. If nothing else, people have suddenly realised tourism's contribution to the economy."
The top end of the market had been badly hit by the slump in the US economy, and this affected five-star hotels more than foot-and-mouth disease, according to Mr Francis Brennan, owner of the Park Hotel in Kenmare. He estimated losses at around 20 to 25 per cent for July.
There had been a pick-up in the last few weeks, Mr John Brennan, manager of the Park Hotel, said yesterday. But the Irish market had disappeared in Kenmare. Irish self-catering holidaymakers who would regularly eat in restaurants and would have spent money in the town have bought holiday homes in Spain.
People have also returned to cheaper accommodation because of the economic downturn, opting for three-star rather than five-star, self-catering rather than B&B, and so on, said Mr Brennan. While the August boom was welcome, "the season this year is August", said Ms Kathleen O'Regan-Sheppard of the Kerry County Tourism board. Access for tourists to the south-west was still a problem, she said.
The "Indian summer" might offset some of the losses suffered in June and July, but the end-of-year figures would be down around 20 per cent overall, Mr Murphy said.
Overall, figures are not expected to match those of last year. The latest releases show there were almost 1.8 million overseas visitors to Cork and Kerry last year, and domestic tourism accounted for a further 1.4 million.