FÁILTE IRELAND is planning an aggressive marketing campaign to encourage more people to holiday at home as the number of overseas tourists declines.
Fáilte Ireland's research has found that people would cut back on the purchase of shoes, clothes and car fuel before cutting back on a holiday at home. When asked how they would decrease spending if they had to, most Irish people mentioned cutting back on going out, buying shoes and clothes, and holidaying abroad.
Only one in 15 said they would cut back on holidaying at home, compared with one in five who were willing to cut back on overseas breaks.
Fáilte Ireland chief executive Shaun Quinn there was more business to be won in the home market. "But it will be business at a price. The domestic consumer is not flush. They will be looking for exceptional value and we are going to work with the industry to ensure that they can deliver that."
There were 4.2 million domestic trips last year compared with 4.3 million in 2007. Mr Quinn pointed out that one in two Irish adults now takes at least one break at home.
Fáilte Ireland chairman Redmond O'Donoghue said the agency would prioritise small tourism businesses and vulnerable sectors this year.
It would also invest in tourism infrastructure and increase investment in sectors such as golf, heritage, culture and business tourism, and festivals.
He said the Irish tourism product was still "good, very good" and there had been unparalleled investment in Irish tourism in recent years.
Mr O'Donoghue said the Irish tourism industry was very resilient, creative and determined. "If we use these qualities wisely we'll get through this extraordinarily difficult period, as we have done before," he said.
Despite the downturn, he said people would not give up travelling. "They may do it differently. They may do it a little less. But they will still travel."
He said Boeing and Airbus had a backlog of 3,700 aircraft orders each "and no airline is cancelling and both Airbus and Boeing are asking if they want to cancel".
And Mr Quinn said he believed that tourism had the potential to bounce back sooner than one might think in markets such as the US.
"If you got a significant push on sterling that could turn our fortunes in Britain around quite quickly," Mr Quinn said. "And we need to be well placed for that upturn."
