Galway the shining light for tourism – even in recession

Date Published: 26-Oct-2011

Galway’s yearly programme of high profile festivals and events has been held up as a shining example to other tourist destinations in the West by the authors of a shock report that shows the numbers of overseas visitors to the western seaboard have plummeted in the past decade.

The Irish Tourist Industry Confederation (ITIC) report said the focus of tourism in counties along the West Coast, from Donegal to Galway to Cork, badly needs a new direction if it is to arrest the worrying trend of fewer visitors, which has continued over the past ten years.

The report, New Directions for Tourism in the West, notes that an estimated 9.8 million bed nights were spent on the west coast by overseas holidaymakers in 2010. This compares with 15.1m in 1999,

a 37% fall-off in demand. Last year just over half of all nights spent by holiday visitors to Ireland were spent along the west coast, down from a situation 10 years ago when two out of three bed nights were spent west of the Shannon.

John Healy, ITIC chairman, told the Connacht Tribune that all counties in the west experienced a decline but the downward trend for South West (Cork/Kerry) and West (Galway Mayo) was less severe than for the North West or Mid-West.

“The big change is visitors are shifting towards shorter breaks and city breaks. They are staying in Dublin and not travelling west as much as they used to – the challenge for Galway and all counties along the Western seaboard is to attract the overseas visitors to come out of Dublin,” he said.

It was not all bad news; and an in-depth case study contained in the report, showed Galway was leading the way in terms of innovation in continuing to attract overseas visitors with festivals and events.

Fáilte Ireland West’s own research indicates that Galway and the West have more than held its own share this year. Fiona Monaghan of Fáilte Ireland West said Galway and the West actually outperformed other regions in 2010 and so far this year the region has continued to grow overseas visitor numbers.

“It is great to see that numbers are up. French and German visitors are coming for Connemara because they see it as an authentic Irish holiday. After Dublin and Cork/Kerry, Galway and the west is the most visited region for visitor coming from North America. The return to growth in overseas visitor numbers is very welcome although the visitors are more value conscious and they are spending less,” she said.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.