Friday, 11th November 2005

MAJOR STEP FORWARD FOR TOURISM
New US Air Agreement Could Increase US Visitors by over 1 Million

The Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) today stated the re-negotiation of the bilateral air agreement is an enormous step forward for Irish tourism as it will allow for increased air routes and new gateways from the US to Ireland. The finalisation of this agreement gives Ireland the potential to double the number of US visitors to Ireland by 2012 to two million. This would result in almost 150,000 extra US visitors to Ireland each year adding €100m in revenue to the Irish economy.

The IHF warmly congratulated Martin Cullen TD, Minister for Transport and his officials for bringing these negotiations to a conclusion which will have immense positive impact on Irish tourism. It also acknowledged the support from John O'Donoghue TD, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism and the Government in general for expediting the remove of this barrier, which to date had hindered the important US tourism market achieving its full potential.

According to John Power, Chief Executive, IHF, today's announcement allows airlines to open new routes between Ireland and a range of US destinations previously unavailable. Whilst optimism is high that this will have a significant positive impact on visitors to Ireland it will be reliant on airlines seeing the commercial value in new routes.

"An EU report* has estimated that Ireland's economic growth could increase by 10% with a new EU/US Open Air Aviation Agreement so today's positive announcement is a major milestone in the progression of Irish tourism," says John Power. "In 2004, 976,000 visitors or 15% of all overseas visitors to Ireland came from North America, however with a greater number of direct routes from the US, the Federation estimates that number could grow by up to 50% to 1.5 million over the next five years or to two million by 2012."

The IHF has maintained that the availability of frequent, competitive access to Ireland, particularly on the North Atlantic route, is essential to Ireland's tourism growth, as this is a major factor determining where a tourist chooses to visit.

"Areas like Dallas, Orlando and San Francisco have large untapped populations that would have an interest in visiting Ireland but to-date cannot easily access direct air travel. Today's announcement offers endless possibilities for potential tourism expansion." continued Mr Power. "The American market is hugely important. American holidaymakers tend to spend longer in Ireland than any other nationality. They also tour more extensively to different parts of the country when they are here, and they spend more, for example, the average US visitor spends €900 in the country, compared to less than €500 for all other overseas visitors."

In 2004 54% of all US visitors flew directly to Ireland while 46% came via the UK or mainland Europe. The trend for direct flights being selected by US visitors has grown steadily since 1995 and indicates a high potential for further development as there is a definite correlation between increased demand and direct air access availability to Ireland. An example of this is that between 1994 and 2000 the number of North American visitors increased by 114% and a key factor was an increase in direct air access during this period.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

Siobhan Molloy/Niamh Boylan                     Tel: (01) 6760168
Weber Shandwick FCC                      (086) 8175066 or (086) 3809191