TOURISM: Tourism representatives are to meet today to formulate a plan for the industry which has been badly shaken by the impending war in Iraq. The Tourism Industry Response Group, launched by the Minister for Tourism, Mr O'Donoghue, earlier this month, will meet Tourism Ireland to respond to the dramatic fall-off in demand.
Overseas bookings are down by about 10 per cent on last year, according to the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF), and the continuing uncertainty over the safety to travel is likely to worsen the decline.
Bookings from the US and Britain, Ireland's two biggest external tourism markets, have fallen sharply since Mr Bush's State of the Union address last month.
The situation is so serious that many hoteliers and tour operators report no reservations have been taken from either country in the last number of days.
While US tourists have been cancelling their holidays in Ireland for the last couple of weeks, the lack of bookings from Britain, our best market, is a particularly worrying trend.
"I am very concerned that the UK market does not have the buoyancy we would have expected," the IHF chief executive, Mr John Power, said.
"We cannot afford to lose business from the UK, and that they will be involved in the war too is making the industry very nervous."
Ireland attracts more than five times the number of visitors from Britain as from the US, and while the US market has been in decline since 2001, the number of British tourists has steadily risen.
A loss in this market during the next few months would leave the Irish tourist industry in a very vulnerable position, Mr Power predicted.
Tourism Ireland chief executive Mr Paul O'Toole admits there has been a decline in British tourists.
However, he says this market is likely to rebound more quickly than the long-haul area.
"People are still travelling from our nearer markets but the British are adopting a 'wait-and-see' approach. This uncertainty is our main concern."
Tourism Ireland intends to use the bulk of the €5 million extra provided in the budget for the tourism marketing fund to promote Ireland in Britain and continental Europe.
In the last number of weeks, Tourism Ireland has pulled its advertising campaigns in the US and Canada. However, Mr O'Toole claims the US market is not being abandoned.
"We're absolutely not giving up on the US, but we have to be practical at this difficult time.
"We're putting our focus now on our current marketing effort and hopefully we'll see a come-back in all of the market when this period is over."
