This article is from page 79 of the 2008-10-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 79 JPG
THIS summer’s surprise upturn in tourism levels has had little or no ef- fect on Clare, according to the Irish Hotel federation. Last week the Cen- tral Statistics Office (CSO) released figures showing a one per cent in- crease in overall tourist numbers for the three months leading up to Sep- Kone lolol
The local branch of the Irish Ho- tel Federation has attacked these figures, calling them inaccurate and misleading.
“The overall CSO figures include a huge element of people travelling into the country for things that are nothing really to do with tourism. The amount of pure tourism in these figures is actually very small. These figures don’t tell us anything about the true value of real tourism that is coming into the country,’ said a County Clare spokesperson for the Irish Hotel Federation.
“Tf you look at the figures on hotel stays for example, they say that the American market in the west is down almost 15 per cent year on year. We also know that the British market is down at least seven per cent and the European market is down about three per cent.”
Indeed, according to the latest of- ficial Tourism Industry Barometer Figures, more than 80 per cent of representative in the Shannon region reported a downturn in numbers seeking accommodation this year.
This places the Shannon region as the worst performing geographic area, with only 51 per cent in the North West Region reporting a downturn in numbers.
‘We also know on the latest barom- eter survey that the Shannon region has been the hardest hit in Ireland this year. There is no doubt that this is linked to the Open Skies and the loss of the Heathrow link. There 1s no-one in the west who will be re- lying on the CSO figure to tell them about tourism in the west,’ contin- ued the spokesperson.
‘A tourist, according to this report, is anyone who has left their place of origin for less than a day, for any purpose. It could be business trips, it could even be US troops in Shan- non who stay overnight, people can be counted on this if they are going shopping in Dublin or going to a show. This survey is not a reflection on the tourism numbers at all.”