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THERE WAS A fall in the number of British people visiting Ireland this year but the number of visitors from mainland Europe and North America rose according to new figures.
The Irish Tourist Industry Confederation (ITIC) has released its annual figures with mixed bag of results showing overall overseas visitors were the same as 2011 with close to 6.5 million people visiting the Ireland.
That’s still down on tourism levels during the boom with figures also showing that in the peak summer months of July and August arrivals were down 7 per cent and 1 per cent respectively when compared to last year.
The economic turmoil across the water is likely to have impacted on the number of British tourists crossing the Irish sea with 100,000 fewer visitors from Britain this year, a four per cent drop.
But Britain remains Ireland’s largest market for tourists with 2.8 million arrivals this year.
In other markes there was a two per cent increase in arrivals from mainland Europe – almost 2.4 million visitors – and an increase in visitors from North America which saw close to one million arrivals.
This graph from the ITIC shows the number of overseas visitors to Ireland over the past five years, underlining the overall drop in tourism numbers since the financial crisis, although visits from the rest of the world have increased since 2007:
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Domestically the ITIC said that the market performed “reasonably well” given the economic circumstances and poor weather over the summer.
This contributed to less frequent, shorter and lower spending trips by people resident in Ireland who chose to stay in the country.
The outlook for 2013 is positive according to the ITIC with The Gathering initiative identified as having the potential to attract more visits, particularly from the diaspora and an overall increase of 5 per cent is possible, it said.
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Stick to primary school teaching….
@Me_a_monkey: I thought it a good article. Might have helped to show the swimsuit/ advert of the times discussed. But a bit of a harsh comment monkey.
@Me_a_monkey: I disagree. Live and let live. Do what you want and don’t be defined simply by the day job. It’s a well written humorous yet serious piece. I enjoyed it. But Special K is not really a healthy food and it’s more about marketing and how people are constantly being manipulated to part them from their hard-earned cash. A complaint to the advertising standards authority might improve things.
@Me_a_monkey: It was just far too long and too loosely written. Needs editing and cutting back.
I think all this Instagranming of ‘body positivity’ and celebrating curves etc is all very well but the reality is you’re looking at Type 2 diabetes and all that goes with it. The Special K ad and the like are nonsense but there’s a danger with embracing our curves too. All the high Street and online plus size trends are a double edged sword. There are serious health reasons that nobody is supposed to be a size 22.
@Sinead Mooney: how dare you fat shame!! FAT SHAMER! Oh wait I shouldn’t use that word. PLUS SIZED SHAMER!
Brands that sell themselves as healthy but which are actually processed junk, should be banned. Eat natural.
@Alan Currie: so that is most brands, especially those that claim low fat.
After all the are low fat, but to stop the product tasting like cardboard they’ve added more sugar…. Which turns to fat in a person’s body due to the large amount as your body trys to store the excess sugar as fat since it can’t process the large amount at once.
@Barry Somers: you’ll find most man made foods that are low sugar are high in fat, and vice versa. There’s also danger of people using fat blocker pills, which also block the good fats from getting absorbed, omega 3 + 6 etc. A lot of people now switching to ketogenic diet.
@Alan Currie: Many natural foods too, to be fair! What nature doesn’t provide are foods high in both sugar and fat.
Lol.
Life is so short. Gonna have me bacon and eggs today. Then chase the dog up a hill.
Never had ‘Special K’ in my whole life of 60ish years. Live. Love. Eat. Move.
Oh and organic oats are all the breakfast cereal you need.
@willow moon: Good for you. But as we live in a world where we have confectionary products pushed on suggestible people from all directions and sugar added to everything (even baked beans), a little pressure to be healthy is probably no harm.
Really do not understand the point of this article. I get it’s poking fun at the underlying theme of the special k marketing. Is this another article on how certain advertising body shames women? This tired notion that it’s everyone else’s job to stop hurting your feelings? I really don’t get the purpose of this article.
@mark d: I would suggest re-reading it, you might get it the second time around
@Vocal Outrage: pleas explain it for me.
@Vocal Outrage: please explain it for me.
I’m sure I’d look great in that swimsuit! Drive the men wild!
I also grew up with the Diet Coke ad. Apparently they wanted to make another ad in that style and it was banned before it was even shot. We are now in the pc world. (There’s another advert). I think if you treat people like adults they act like adults and can make up their own minds about what they want. Maybe that’s why we are all still treated like children.
@Marcia Craine: but you have no problem with those adults being given false and misleading info/data?
How do you expect them to make up their minds if they are being lied to be the food industry?
@Barry Somers: when does it become an individuals responsibility to find and disseminate information for themselves. Also if people believe everything they see in an advert they deserve to be fooled.
This example really enhances her camel toe
What’s wrong with ambition, wanting to look better and feel better. If you want to commit suicide by over eating and indulging in harmful practices, go ahead, I don’t want to be paying for your diabetes medication or gastric bypass surgery. The reality is, being overweight is unhealthy and self limiting.
@Daniel Donovan: oh oh! Snowflakes gonna get you for that comment!
Most upset person here is yourself, so far, Mark. Does that say anything to you?
I can just imagine Waterford Whispers with this one. “Woman believes a full bodied red swimsuit body shames, goes to a beach in Spain and has a meltdown.”
If anything those swimsuits went out of their way to be modest and cover all the… bits. These days you see worse on a sunny July day in Grafton Street, and skimpier swimsuits held together with a bit of string and half a handkerchief on Termonfeckin beach. Personally I never look…
have your say