THE CENTRAL Statistics Office (CSO) has been forced to curtail the frequency at which it gathers some material because of restrictions on staff recruitment.
The CSO is no longer publishing tourism data – which hospitality industry bodies regard as key to assessing the performance of the troubled sector – on a monthly basis. It is instead providing quarterly updates.
The data covers matters such as the number of visits to and from Ireland and the origins and destinations of those visits.
The most recent tourism figures released by the CSO came in the last week of August and covered the performance of the sector up to the end of June.
They showed that during that time some 2.6 million people had visited Ireland, down from 3.3 million in the same period last year.
The next statistics office tourism dispatch is not due until November.
A spokeswoman for the CSO said: “The situation is that the CSO has not been able to replace tourism enumerators to previous levels due to the restrictions on recruitment of permanent staff.
“This is at the root of our reduction in the frequency of summary tourism statistics from monthly to quarterly.”
The Department of the Taoiseach is responsible for the statistics office, so as to ensure the services it provides remain independent.
The spokeswoman said the CSO had so far not needed to cut back on any other regular releases or publications due to budget or staffing restrictions.
Plans for the 2011 census were in train and would commence in April. The CSO is to take on 440 census field supervisors to work on temporary fixed-purpose contracts from January until June 2011.
The changes to how the tourism data is gathered mean details of the numbers visiting Ireland in July and August, traditionally the busiest months for the sector, have not yet been released.
The sector experienced a year-on-year visitor decline of almost 25 per cent in May and 30 per cent in April.
This was due to a slowdown in bookings sparked by the recession and the ash cloud caused by the erupting Icelandic volcano, resulting in the cancellation of thousands of flights.
Minister for Tourism Mary Hanafin said the June figures, which showed visits to Ireland down 5.7 per cent on 2009, suggested things were turning around for the sector. Tourism generated €3.9 billion in revenues last year, down 19 per cent on 2008 and 21 per cent on 2007.
Ms Hanafin recently established the Tourism Renewal Implementation Group – comprising tourism industry interests and department officials – and has tasked it with driving recovery in the sector.
Following its inaugural meeting last month Ms Hanafin said the sector faced “perhaps the greatest set of challenges in decades”.
