TOURISM 2009 - YEAR IN REVIEW

For many businesses, 2009 has been the most difficult trading year on record as travel, whether for business or pleasure, fell sharply.

Among the notable developments at home -

• A €10 air travel tax was introduced
• Overseas visitor numbers to Ireland fell by 12% approximately while UK visitor numbers fell by at least 15%
• Overseas visitor revenue fell by appoximately 20%
• Christoph Mueller & Niall Gibbons became the respective CEO's of Aer Lingus and Tourism Ireland following the resignations of Dermot Mannion and Paul O'Toole
• Air services were suspended from Shannon to New York (Delta), to Chicago (Aer Lingus) & to Paris (Cityjet) and from Dublin to San Francisco & Washington (Aer Lingus). Ryanair also set about reducing its services from Dublin by 20%
• Regional Airports face an uncertain future following the announcement that the annual €15 million Public Service Obligation route subsidy will come to an end in 2011
• Hotels had a terrible year and the Bacon report suggested that up to 25% of hotel bedrooms should be closed down
• Nama became the largest hotel operator in the country
• Hotel management companies such as Maldron and Tifco increased their portfolios
• Hotels.com found that Ireland was the least expensive country in western Europe for hotel rooms between January & June
• International brands retreated - for example, the Conrad brand has gone from Mount Juliet as has the Sheraton brand from Fota Island Resort
• Lynch Hotels became a good news story as it came out of examinership
• In the B&B sector, the two representative organisations (Town & County Homes and Irish Farm Holidays) merged and rebranded as B&B Ireland.
• Locks and Mint were two of the higher profile restaurants to close their doors
• Restaurateurs put value back on the menu. Dublin City Business Improvement District (BID) launched two 'Dine in Dublin' initiatives while Tom Doorley did likewise with his LunchTimes and DinnerTimes promotion
• Food festivals continued to grow in popularity and concepts such as locally sourced, sustainable, fresh, seasonal and organic became more mainstream
• Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland launched a 'Shine' campaign to ensure that Ireland retained its reputation as a welcoming and friendly destination
• The Mansfield Group opened a superb new International Events & Conference Centre (IECC) at Citywest
• Tourism moved up the policy agenda following the Global Irish Forum, the report of the Tourism Renewal Group and the report of the National Competitiveness Council. The increase of 2% in the overall budget allocation to tourism was perhaps the most tangible examples of this
• Web Reservations International (WRI), the Dublin based IT company whose brands include Hostelworld and Hostels.com was sold to a US company for a figure reportedly in excess of €200 million
• Ireland's best known tour operator & travel agent 'Budget Travel' was unable to get a trading license for 2010 and had to close
• Work continued on the Grand Canal Theatre, the Aviva Stadium, Convention Centre Dublin and Terminal 2, Dublin Airport and all will come on stream in 2010