Minister of State for Tourism & Sport Michael Ring has welcomed the 6% increase in overseas visits to Ireland for the first seven months of 2013 compared to the same period of 2012.
Speaking after the CSO published its latest figures, Minister Ring said: ‘The figures are very encouraging for the tourism industry and suggest again that The Gathering is delivering more overseas visitors. I would like to thank the thousands of volunteers throughout the country who have organised and helped out with Gathering events and brought a great sense of community and pride back to parishes and towns. Visitors from overseas are enjoying their holiday experience here in Ireland with many promising to return again in the future’.
Minister Ring also welcomed yesterday’s CSO data showing an 8% increase in employment in accommodation and food services over the past 12 months, which he said shows that the special 9% tourism VAT rate and other tourism measures are supporting job-creation.
Today’s CSO figures on Overseas Travel show:
Overall trips to Ireland for the first seven months of 2013 were up by 6% compared to the corresponding period in 2012. There were 3,904,400 overseas visits to Ireland during the seven-month period;
Visits from North America were up by 18.6% for the seven months with a total of 671,600 visits;
Visits from Mainland Europe were up by 6% in January–July 2013 compared to the same period in 2012 (1,423,700 visits);
The number of visits from Britain for the first seven months of 2013 were up by 1.4% compared to the same period in 2012 (1,579,300 visits);
For Other (i.e. long-haul) markets, there was a 6.9% increase in visit numbers in the first seven months of 2013 (229,800 visits).
Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland said: “Today’s figures from the CSO for May to July are very strong. I particularly welcome the growth in visitor numbers from North America (+20.5%) – a record performance from that market. Tourism Ireland believes that we are on course to achieve our best year ever from the United States – even surpassing the previous best year of 2007. This year we will welcome over one million American visitors, spending about US$1 billion. We are also seeing a record year from our long-haul markets (+11.9% for May to July) – with Australia and New Zealand in particular driving that growth. And Mainland Europe (+5% for May to July) is also playing a major part in growing tourism business from overseas this year. It is also encouraging to see a return to growth in visitors from Great Britain (+3.3% for May to July). In the coming weeks, we will roll out our busy autumn campaign – aimed at boosting late-season travel to Ireland from around the globe and keeping this momentum going. The period September to December traditionally yields as much as 30% of overseas tourism business.”
Fáilte Ireland welcomed the tourism statistics with CEO Shaun Quinn saying: “For us in Fáilte Ireland, these figures are extremely encouraging and mirror what we have been hearing anecdotally from tourism businesses throughout the country. It is quite clear that The Gathering is providing tourism with the ‘jump-start’ we always imagined it would and our North American and European markets are bouncing back. The increase in American visitors is particularly welcome as they stay longer and spend more – which is good for the tourism sector, local businesses and the national economy.”
Minister Ring added: “While our main summer holidays are now over and kids are returning to school, we should remember that we still have a lot of exciting festivals and Gathering events coming up such as ‘Flightfest’ in Dublin City Centre on September 15th, Listowel Race Week from 15th to 21st September, the Galway Oyster and Seafood Festival on 28th and 29th September and the Cork Rebel Week from 14th to 20th October.”
There was further good news yesterday from the tourism industry in the Quarterly National Household Survey figures for the second quarter of 2013. The Q2-2013 figure for employment in the ‘Accommodation & Food Services’ sector shows an increase of 8% compared to Q2-2012 and an increase of 13.3% since the Government took office in 2011. In terms of the overall growth in employment between Q2-2012 and Q2-2013, a total of 28.5% of that growth was in the Accommodation and Food Services sector.
Minister Ring said: “The employment figures released yesterday were very positive from a tourism perspective and show that Government actions under the Jobs Initiative, including reducing VAT on certain tourism services to 9% and halving employers’ PRSI for those on modest wages, continue to deliver.”