History of tourism Ireland has a long tradition of tourism. Arthur Young, an English

writer, who was born in 1741 was already travelling to and touring around Ireland in the 1770s. During the 18th century the British nobility used to visit Ireland. In the 19th century it was really the coming of the railways and the building of large, quality railway company hotels that kick started tourism in Ireland. The Killarney Great Southern Hotel (1854) was one of the first and was quickly followed by others at Caragh Lake and in the Midlands. In the West of Ireland, the Great Western Railway built hotels in Galway (Eyre Square).The beginning of the 20th century saw a wider recognition of the natural history of the Irish landscape which became attractive to both tourists and naturalists. So areas such as the Burren, the Cliffs of Moher and the Aran Islands, started becoming attractions at this time. During the first spurt of growth in tourism in Ire-land in the Sixties there was some innovative investment in heritage tour-ism, primarily in the mid-west, with the Medieval Banquets and Bunratty Folk Park. The Seventies and Eighties were a time of stagnation in the industry as terrorism ripped through Northern Ireland and raging inflation robbed the Republic of any remaining competitiveness. In the nineties Ireland received 147m£ from the European Regional Development Fund to invest in infrastructure , training and marketing in order to develop tourism. That was the beginning of a new era of development.  

Key Figures The Irish government took into account the major role the tourism

industry could play in the economy, and from 2000 to 2007 the develop-ment of tourism was largely due to marketing abroad. Unfortunately the crisis in the banking system severely hit Ireland in 2008 and the 'Celtic tiger' had to accept a bailout from the EU/IMF that urged the Government to reduce the budget as outlined in the National Recovery Plan 2011-2014. Hence 2011 saw a 24% decrease in the tourism allocation in the budget after a 7.2% decrease in 2010.

The Tourism Industry in 2011

After years of regular growth, the number of tourists has fallen sharply since 2007. An estimated 5.6 million visitors came to Ireland in 2010, a 15% drop on the previous year or almost 1 million fewer visitors than the year before. 2010 was the third successive year of a drop in vis-itors, following a decline of 12% in 2009 and a fall of 4% in 2008. As a result, 2.2 million fewer overseas visitors came to Ireland in 2010 com-pared with the peak year of 2007. Foreign exchange earnings declined in 2010 by 14% to €3.3 billion. This steep decline in overseas visitors to Ire-land seems to have stopped in 2011. The first half of 2011 has seen a welcome return to growth in overseas visitor numbers to the island in the order of +10% when compared with the same time last year.

Tourism organisation There has been some major reform of Irish tourism structures in the

last ten years with the setting up of Failte Ireland, the national develop-ment authority with responsibility for tourism development and domestic marketing, and Tourism Ireland. Tourism Ireland was established in De-cember 2001 under the framework of the Northern Ireland Peace Agree-ment (Good Friday Agreement) with the responsibility of marketing the island of Ireland overseas as a tourist destination. More recently, the for-mer regional tourism authorities were dissolved and subsumed into Fail-te Ireland to ensure greater coherence in the development of regional tourism.

How tourism can help Ireland to recover from the current economic crisis?

Although the number of tourists has steadily declined in recent years, there is always a strong attraction to Ireland that remains a bench-mark in Europe for green tourism. In a recent survey from Failte 83% of foreign tourists say they would recommend this destination to their friends. The reasons cited explaining this interest are: the culture, .the landscapes and the quality of the people of Ireland.

Another major reason to visit the country commonly cited is to visit a rel-ative or parent, the Irish Diaspora having approximately 80 million peo-ple worldwide. The will of the government to develop tourism is very strong especially in its ability to generate jobs, this industry being man-power-consuming. The areas of development to be explored in the com-ing years are: - Business tourism, also involving the development of prestige tourism. The recent opening of a new, ultramodern Convention Centre in Sep-tember, 2010 is aiming to attract international conferences to Dublin and will also allow the parallel development of prestige tourism and will help revitalize the country's image. - The creation of theme parks: The city of Bunratty is expected to create a new adventure theme park to sustain the growth of tourism in the Shannon area. - The development of tourism from Far Eastern countries is a priority in the short to medium term. Ireland has started to target the Asian market following a 2007 study which showed that tourists from this region spend more, stay on average twice as long as other visitors and travel further inland. Some cyclical causes are increasing the temporary crisis in the tourism sector. Once subdued, these should lead to a resumption of normal tour-ism activity. The majors causes cited are: - The image of Ireland is degraded by the banking crisis of 2008. Ireland has committed to restore its tarnished image by increasing marketing in foreign countries - Tourism from England, which is the most important in terms of reve-nue, is at its lowest because of the unfavourable exchange rate of the Pound Sterling. - The volcano Fulljanagokull (Isl.) caused a temporary drop in attend-ance. This problem can be a major threat in the coming years as it tem-porarily stopped air traffic in 2010, thus limiting the number of tourists. At the microeconomic level, as the purchasing power of the Irish has de-creased, they are remaining in Ireland, thus domestic tourism is tempo-rarily replacing the decline of foreign tourists. Finally, the reduction in the airport tax from €10 to €3 per departing pas-senger will have a positive impact on tourism in the short term.

- - - - - - - - - However tourism development will not solve all the country's eco-

nomic problems. In fact Ireland cannot develop mass tourism because of its geographical position, which generates an oceanic climate with high rainfall and low temperatures and thus cannot compete with the Mediter-ranean countries. Irish Tourism is rather a niche market featuring hiking, golf vacations, fishing, cycling, equestrian and English study stays. Moreover two structural causes may limit the country's development in the short term: - The number of hotel rooms is in excess of the number of tourists so the building industry will not benefit from a rise in the number of tourists. - The transport infrastructure and hi-speed telecommunications networks are insufficient and could limit the development of business tourism. In addition to these weaknesses three major problems remain at a mac-roeconomic level: - The austerity measures imposed by the government to reduce debt will weigh on the country's development in the coming years - Banks have not recovered yet from the 2008 crisis, and access to cred-it is still a major problem. Revitalizing the banking system and regaining the trust of rating agencies to have access again to cheap credit will take time. - The property bubble burst in 2008 and the real estate market remains in the doldrums. Reinvigorating the housing market is a major challenge for the country's economic future. Finally, as the origin of the crisis is financial the solution can only come from finance. The Irish government is trying to reprivatize the banks in its possession, in order to reassure international financial markets.

CONCLUSION In 2010, the Travel & Tourism total contribution to Irish GDP de-

creased by 25.6%. Compared with PIIGS countries the fluctuation of the contribution to GPD was -3.5% for Spain and +0.1% for Greece, be-tween 2009 and 2010. The tourism industry of these countries have been less affected by the financial crisis than Ireland. Some explana-tions could be: the attractive climate, historical monuments and the cost of living. However their Capital Investments decreased by 2.5% for Greece, 25.5% for Spain and 51.6% for Ireland. This cutback could be the principle reason for the difference in the tourism total contribution to Irish and PIIGS GDP. Despite of the low contribution to GDP, the tour-ism industry will help Ireland to recover from the economic crisis, but as the origin is financial, it is a key point to revitalize the banking system.

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Strengths Weaknesses

English speaking country Ireland’s reputation is damaged around the world since the 2008 financial crisis: The annual CountryRep2011 study found countries ranked Ireland the 17th most reputable country in the world, down from 14th a year ago and 11th in 2009

The Irish population: Their way of life and natural sense of hospitali-ty is a strength in the tourism industry

Tourism in Ireland is a niche market and cannot become a mass market because of the climate due to its northern location

The country: The beauty of the rural landscape which has been pro-tected and enhanced by the population

Successive studies have highlighted economy-wide competi-tiveness issues: Key concerns include the cost of doing busi-ness, the availability of skills, the need for more competition in locally-traded sectors

The government is strongly implicated in the development of tour-ism in Ireland. See recent advertisement campaigns both inside and outside the country and the « homecation » campaign

The various roots and branches of tourism need to be reformed to improve synergies, reduce complexity, and improve flexibility in order to deliver greater efficiencies and increase spending on frontline marketing

Opportunities Threats

Tourism is one of the world’s fastest growing industries Unfavourable exchange rates: The fall in the value of sterling, which made Ireland more expensive for visitors from the UK – the largest overseas tourism market – and made the UK more attractive for visitors from elsewhere

The strong Irish diaspora worldwide. About 80 million people in the world have Irish roots

Lack of credit availability is seriously threatening business via-bility and investment in physical and service quality

Ireland is still a premium tourist destination The Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull seriously disturbed the air traffic last year which this could reoccur in the future

St Patrick’s Day offers a unique opportunity to raise Ireland’s profile abroad, deliver marketing messages, and strengthen relations with other countries

Ireland is not party to the Schengen borders arrangements. It is a significant impediment to the further development of overseas tourism

Lack of infrastructure (Highways and roads, 3G and Hi-speed internet telecommunication networks)

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*In income terms total tourism spend made up €4.3 billion (2.7%) of GDP *Direct Employment in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry was 123,300 in 2009 (6.4% of total employment)

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Impact of tourism on the Irish economy

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Cliff-of-moher http://www.cliffsofmoher.ie

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- Gilles LEFEBVRE - Jean-Francois PAVONE - Romain TABART -

Connemara Lake http://mcginnscraic.wordpress.com