B & Bs suffering most as tourism falls

Visitors to Ireland are down by a fifth for the first half of this year according to official figures released last week. Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures, measuring inbound visitors, demonstrate that in the period January to June, the number of people visiting Ireland from overseas was down 20.51 percent compared to the same period last year.This translated into a difficult and challenging summer for the tourist industry.Kevin Kidney, Failte Ireland’s Head of Operations, “Lakelands & Inland Waterways”, based in Mullingar, believes that local sectors of the tourist industry have met the challenge head on and had a successful summer in spite of a difficult economic climate.“This region is driven by the home market and we have had a great response to the recent campaign encouraging people to ‘staycation’, that is holidaying at home rather than travelling abroad,” explained Kevin.The Fáilte Ireland ‘staycation’ campaign for Lakelands & Inland Waterways was built around 40 second ads in cinemas reinforced with intensive foyer promotions and a competition giving cinema goers a chance of winning one of 40 free breaks on the region.“We focus on the domestic market and the numbers are up with good occupancy being reported by hotels but B&Bs, which traditionally serviced overseas visitors, have suffered.“Hotels have responded to the challenge by dropping their room rates and offering great value. The local Hotels that have had a good summer season have been ‘Bundling and Packaging’. That is a trade term for providing extra value to holiday makers by offering packages that include rooms and for example golf, horse riding, trips to local attractions.“This is definitely a successful strategy and Failte Ireland will be looking at how this can be used as an incentive for B&Bs too,” Kevin told the Westmeath Examiner.Putting the Faulty in their FailteThe Bloomfield House Hotel is one local hotel offering a package with a difference this September, the chance to experience the chaos of the “Interactive Theatre Australia” Faulty Towers dining experience.“Everyone will be there, Basil, his bossy wife Sybil and the hopeless, language-challenged waiter Manuel. Diners can expect to be crying with laughter as the night descends into absolute chaos, with everything that can go wrong going wrong, except for the three course meal which will be fabulous,” explains Oliver Gaffey, Sales and Marketing Manager, Bloomfield House Hotel.Oliver agrees with Kevin Kidney that the future for tourism is to create great value packages:“This is one of a number of events that we are selling as an event and as part of an accommodation package. We are always putting in place new ideas to try and sell hotel rooms. It is great to have Belvedere beside us and also the Greyhound Track as they attract people to the area all year long,” says Oliver.Bartle D’Arcy Belvedere General Manager. would stress the importance of local attractions working together with hotels and Bed and Breakfasts to bring people into the Mullingar area:“As well as Belvedere providing a range of packages with accommodation providers throughout the year, we also supply local accommodation details for all our major events to create economic spin off in the area.“Our year-round programme of events is a good bed night driver for the locality and currently we are working on our major events for 2011 with some great new events planning to take place at Belvedere next Summer.” said Bartle D’Arcy, Belvedere General Manager.