TOURISM BUSINESSES may be coming out of one of the toughest years in recent memory but more than half believe the worst is not over and the economic downturn will have a negative impact in the months ahead.
Fáilte Ireland’s latest tourism barometer survey of 1,000 businesses, conducted in September, shows that 77 per cent of bed and breakfasts saw a downturn in business for 2010 when compared with the previous year, while 68 per cent of hostels reported a fall in business. The drop was smaller for hotels, with 41 per cent saying business was down. One-third of hotels actually reported a better trade than in 2009.
It was a good year for the caravan and camping sector, with almost half of all owners reporting increased demand on 2009, mainly due to Irish holidaymakers.
Most accommodation owners said they expected their volume of bed nights to decrease for the rest of the year, and this was before they knew about the cold snap that would bring the country to a halt in November.
The bad weather of recent weeks must have felt like the last straw for a beleaguered industry which saw its 2010 season begin with more bad weather, followed by the chaos generated by the volcanic ash cloud.
All this happened against the backdrop of the global downturn and particular difficulties in two of our most valuable markets – Britain and the US.
The British market went into free fall, with a 17 per cent decline in the numbers of British visitors coming here in 2010, on top of a 15 per cent decrease in 2009.
An estimated 6.8 million visitors came to the island of Ireland in 2010, a fall of 11.5 per cent on 2009 figures.
Despite that, Tourism Ireland chief executive Niall Gibbons said visitor numbers were expected to increase by anything from a little over zero to 8 per cent in 2011, depending on whether economic factors turned in Ireland’s favour or not.
The tourism barometer survey found that just over 20 per cent of tourism businesses believe the downturn will have a negative impact on the industry for the short term, while more than 50 per cent believe it will have an impact “for the foreseeable future”. But Paul Gallagher, who manages Buswell’s Hotel in Dublin, was more bullish, saying he believed the hotel sector had reached the bottom of the cycle. The disruption caused by the snow and bad weather of recent weeks had led to the cancellation of some bookings. but Mr Gallagher said many would-be travellers were rebooking their trips for the coming weeks.
There were indications from Dublin hotels that bookings for January and February were looking “quite positive”, particularly for business tourism. Mr Gallagher, who is also chairman of the Irish Hotels Federation, said the opening of the Dublin Convention Centre had definitely boosted business.
“Some hotels are cautiously optimistic that 2011 will be a better year than 2010,” he said. “But it is going to be a difficult few years”.
Mr Gallagher estimated that about 50 hotels closed during the year and he predicted that more would close in the coming months. Hotels had been dipping into their savings since the downturn began “but they’ve emptied every piggy bank they have at this stage in order to survive”.
BB Ireland, which represents half of bed and breakfast owners, doesn’t see a huge amount of recovery in the UK market in the coming months because issues such as the rate of sterling and the UK recession have not gone away.
Its chief executive Helena Healy said the French and German markets looked more positive because their economies were not hit as badly as the economies of Ireland and Britain.
The US market was also showing signs of hope. “That word is coming from tour operators who say they are seeing a lot more early bookings compared with this time last year.”
While the downturn was expected to lead to a major exodus of bed and breakfast operators, this did not materialise. Some people might have retired a year or two earlier than planned, she said, but BBs were in a better position than hotels as many of them were in family homes that had been bought and paid for.
The Irish Tourist Industry Confederation, an umbrella group for tourism businesses, will give its views on what 2011 may hold when it presents its end-of-year review tomorrow.
IRISH TOURISM BY THE NUMBERS:
50%
of caravan parks and campsites report increase in demand
77%
of BBs report a downturn in business
50
the number of hotels estimated by the Irish Hotels Federation to have closed
17%
decline in the numbers of British visitors coming here in 2010
