The celebration of St Patrick's Day in May might seem eccentric, but it marks a determination by the tourism industry to announce that normal service is being resumed. The festivities in Dublin will be as enjoyable as they would have been in March - with the added bonus that the weather will probably be better. Some international acts which had to cancel in March because of the foot-and-mouth outbreak, will be absent. That is a pity, but they will be replaced by bands from all over the State which could not have participated in March because of local commitments.
We should not lose sight of the fact, however, that the tourism industry has been dealt a severe blow. The tourism product is classically perishable. If a hotelier fails to sell a bedroom on a given night, that sale is gone forever. Foot-and-mouth has been estimated to have cost the industry so far £200m. It could have been worse, but no industry can sustain the loss of so much money without feeling a great deal of pain.
The temporary closures have hurt individual employees and businesses. Airlines and car-ferry companies were particularly hard hit. Hotels and guest houses, which had welcomed British anglers for generations at this time of year, were forced to tell old friends that they could not come this year. This again is business lost forever.
The cancellation of the St Patrick's Day Festival sent a very worrying signal to the United States market. Our American visitors have generally conservative tastes and dislike to see traditional patterns disturbed. Cancelling St Patrick's Day struck them as suggesting that some life-threatening virus had spread over Ireland. This impression still lingers and it will take a mighty - and expensive - effort to remove it. The encouraging news is that this effort is under way in all our principal markets. The industry has embarked on a major campaign to re-assure the travel trade abroad - the people who send us our customers - that Ireland is open for business. Tourism generates £4 billion in revenue for the Irish economy, 75 per cent of it from overseas visitors. This is a source of income which, nationally, we must protect. It seems that the Minister for Tourism, Dr McDaid, Bord Failte and the industry have recognised this and are beating the international bushes to reassure the travel trade, including travel journalists, that they will not be disappointed if they send their clients to Ireland.