Irish Tourism could be impacted until 2029, according to new report
Irish tourism is an important part of the forecourt and convenience retailing economy in Ireland – and now a recent report states that it may take until 2029 before it fully recovers to 2019 levels.
Yhe Irish Tourism Industry Confederation (ITIC) said at its online “Leading the Tourism Recovery – ITIC Virtual Conference 2021” recent that activity in the tourism industry take until 2029, ina worst case scenario.
ITIC chairperson Ruth Andrews said that this is not a prospect on which ITIC is focussing, and it is hoping that the sector will recover much sooner than 2029.
Andrews stated, “The most optimistic that we need to look towards is when we can get back to those 2019 levels of business, when we can get back to creating those numbers of jobs again, and we do envisage that is possible by 2025 to 2026.
“But it is going to be contingent on the government continuing to commit to tourism and continuing to invest.”
Recovery Plan
ITIC launched a recovery plan for the tourism sector during the “Leading the Tourism Recovery – ITIC Virtual Conference 2021” event, which includes three scenarios, one of which is titled “downside”, one of which is titled “through to base case”, and one of which is titled “optimistic”.
9.69 million overseas tourists travelled to Ireland in 2019 – that’s almost 10 million people filling their rental cars, touring the island, shopping in c-stores for breakfast, lunch and evening meals.
Tourism Minister Statements
Tourism minister Catherine Martin told the “Leading the Tourism Recovery – ITIC Virtual Conference 2021” event, “The government remains absolutely committed to ensuring that the aviation sector can maintain the necessary core capability to retain that strategic connectivity and is ready to quickly rebound when the time is right to do so…The reduction from the 13.5% to 9% rate that we achieved in the last budget, it is the most targetted, the most focussed and of most benefit to the sector.
“What I can say is that I am very aware of that and my focus is on that.”
Martin said that she is working to deliver additional supports to tourism businesses, including the CRSS, two thirds of the payments of which have gone to tourism companies, as well as the 55 million euro supports via Failte Ireland.
Martin added that the government will be ready to promote Ireland overseas as soon as the time is right to do so, and that she is reasonably optimistic about a recovery in the domestic tourism economy, but is also very aware that three quarters of that consists of international visitors, and stated, “Our focus now is on suppressing the virus and making sure that domestic tourism is at best as it can be in the summer.”
