A dip in the State's tourism marketing has forced private firms to pick up the slack
That’s according to research by the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation.
A DECLINING BUDGET at the State agency responsible for promoting Ireland to foreign holidaymakers has forced the private sector to pick up the slack.
That’s according to the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation (Itic), which reported that tourism businesses spent at least €92 million on overseas marketing last year.
That estimate is based on interviews conducted by research firm Tourism & Transport Consult (TTC) with the likes of air and sea carriers, hotels and visitor attractions, and data compiled from published sources such as annual reports.
It’s important to note that Itic acknowledged that “expenditure by many smaller enterprises may be underrepresented” in its data, so that figure may be much higher.
Itic and other hospitality bodies have complained that the current marketing budget at Tourism Ireland threatens to derail an industry goal to more than double overseas visitor revenue to €8.1 billion by 2025.
In 2016, Tourism Ireland – which is a member of Itic – was given a budget of just over €25 million to spend on promotional activities. That’s €900,000 less than the year before and a €3 million decline on 2014′s figure.
According to Itic, marketing Ireland overseas “has become increasingly dependent on the campaigns undertaken by businesses”.
“With the decline in investment by the State in destination marketing, the business community has stepped up to assume an increasing role in marketing Ireland to potential visitors,” the organisation said.
Main markets
Although many tourism businesses partner with Tourism Ireland in advertising campaigns and in-market events, Itic said “the bulk of the marketing investment by businesses is undertaken independently”.
The organisation – which also counts Aer Lingus, DAA and Guinness Storehouse as members – said the €92 million spend does not include promotions by foreign airlines, online travel agencies or overseas tour operators that sell holidays to Ireland.
“The addition of marketing expenditure of foreign companies on promoting Ireland would bring the total to well in excess of €100 million,” it said, adding that companies have indicated that they will increase marketing spend this year.
Click here view a larger version
North America – which Itic described as a “fast-expanding, high-spending source market for Irish tourism” – attracted the biggest chunk of promotional spend last year, with almost €38 million set aside for promotions in the US and Canada.
Some €25 million was spent on efforts to woo British tourists, whose numbers have been largely in decline since 2016. Air and sea carriers in particular accounted for a sizable chunk of that spend, according to Itic.
Another €23 million was spent in mainland Europe, which the tourism organisation considered “below par when considered against the value of visitor expenditure in Ireland by Europeans”.
Meanwhile, between €6 million and €7 million was put into campaigns in long-haul markets like Australia, the Middle East and Asia.
