Tourism to Ireland has seen its toughest 12 months on record, but Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, is optimistic the business will recover and return to growth.

Niall Gibbons is no stranger to adversity. Since joining Tourism Ireland shortly after 9/11, he has seen tourism tested through foot and mouth, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, bombings in Bali, Madrid and London, and last year’s swine flu epidemic. All of which severely affected travel. As soon as one crisis abated, another came along. The current economic crisis, however, has impacted on the efforts of the tourism body, responsible for marketing the island of Ireland overseas, like nothing else in its history.

“From a business perspective, it has been an extremely difficult 12 months,” Gibbons says. “There has been unprecedented economic uncertainty as well as exchange rate difficulties with the strong euro. The reduction in air access has also not helped, with a substantial drop in available access opportunities for potential visitors to Ireland this spring. Preliminary airport traffic information for April indicates that numbers are down about 30%. Then, the volcanic ash crisis scuppered business even further. It has been a real challenge, no doubt about that.”

In his 12 months as chief executive of Tourism Ireland, Niall Gibbons has battened down the hatches and weathered the storm. For the tourism body, the priorities have been to work more closely with the industry than ever before to help ‘close the sale’ and to get compelling and value message to consumers across the globe. “Urgency is key. We know interest in holidaying here is strong - we want to convert that interest into actual travel now.” Nevertheless, Gibbons remains optimistic. Having worked with Tourism Ireland since 2002, he has been involved in many of the organisation’s key decisions and day-to-day operations, experience that helps somewhat to lighten the load. “It certainly made that part of the job relatively easy,” he says. “I had built up solid relationships with many of the key

Stakeholders. A large part of the job is managing a complex set of relationships and being able to pick up the phone to people in the industry. There is no doubt that as the last 12 months have progressed, there has been a real need to keep up communication. We are dealing with experienced practitioners in the most difficult circumstances that the industry has ever faced.” Irish tourism is nothing if not resilient, as was proved during the recent volcanic ash crisis, in which the industry rose to meet the occasion and accommodated stranded travellers with generosity, warmth and no added charges. “It was one of those situations where we got the opportunity to shine a little more than other countries,” says Gibbons. “There was some reputational damage in countries around Europe, with regard to people who were stranded and charged top dollar.

Tourism Ireland worked alongside industry bodies and we were involved in the drafting of the industry visitor charter - a voluntary code that gives reassurance to people who may be stranded here. Over 1,200 enterprises signed up to it, an indication that the industry knows that, in the current climate, our reputation counts for everything.”

Tourism Ireland is fighting back with a €20 million campaign, its largest ever midyear overseas marketing drive, in a bid to attract travellers to Ireland during the summer months to capitalise on the later-than-ever booking trend. The campaign - in Europe, Great Britain, and the United States - has been developed with a wide range of industry partners, offering value-for-money incentives.

Highlights include Silver Surfer Summer Savings, which entails accommodation, golf, restaurant, andother value offerings for travellers from Great Britain who are aged 66 and over. “Ten million people are aged 66 or over in GB, of whom two million fall into our target market,” says Gibbons. “We feel with this compelling offer, we should be able to stimulate that sector. They can travel free by rail as well, with the new Golden Trekker pass, introduced on St Patrick’s Day.

In its first few weeks, that Golden Trekker attracted 18,000 visits to the website and over 2,000 bookings, so I feel there is potential to promote that vigorously.” As part of the campaign, there are value golf campaigns; regional campaigns for the east, Lakelands, west coast and Shannon area, and Dublin; car touring promotions and co-operative marketing campaigns with major airlines (including Ryanair, Aer Lingus and easyJet) and tour operators. Six sea carriers have signed up as well.

But Tourism Ireland also needs to provide compelling reasons to visit and to pinpoint what makes Ireland stand out in the marketplace. For Gibbons, one of the biggest challenges is convincing people in Britain that taking a holiday in Ireland is sufficiently different to staying at home. Figures from December 2009 revealed the number of people travelling abroad from Britain had declined to 2001 figures. So far in 2010, the figures have declined a further 9%. Tourism Ireland also faces preconceptions, in Great Britain and elsewhere, that Ireland is expensive.

Gibbons is encouraged by the value provided by the industry and also recent exchange rate moves which make us more affordable. “One of the key things the customer is looking for at the moment is value,” he says. “A number of years ago, where they might have taken two or three short breaks, there is a question mark now as to whether they take any. It’s also a matter of ‘where am I going to get value for money’. I don’t mean cheap, but quality and service at the right price.”

Then there are emerging markets such as India and China. “We have targeted these for the last number of years,” says Gibbons. “The critical success in those markets will be sustained marketing and making Visa entry requirements a little easier. In that context, we have been talking with the Department of Justice. Those markets offer volume, given the size of their populations. The United States and Britain were the two most popular countries that visited our website last year, but number three was China with 1.8 million visitors to the site.”

One of Gibbons’ biggest challenges, however, is a dramatic decline in access to Ireland. The global airline industry has seen staggering losses: between them, Air France/KLM, Lufthansa and British Airways lost over two billion euro last year. Ireland is fortunate in that it has two big carriers, Ryanair and Aer Lingus, which are relatively stable and fly in excess of 70% of capacity to the island. We are also fortunate to be served by a range of frequent, high quality ferry services. Will Ireland attract more tourists in 2010? “Sixty per cent of holidaymakers arrive between May and September - so it’s all to play for. We have excellent campaigns that will stimulate demand. We have had the most difficult start to the year that I could have imagined - I have to be honest about it - but it is all to play for at the moment.

You can come back and ask me that question in September.” And as difficult as the last 12 months have been, there is always room for optimism. “The volcanic ash seems to have gone for the moment, which is great news,” he says. “The exchange rate is currently going in the right direction for us, from a tourism perspective, in relation to sterling and the dollar. Also, we have some superb infrastructure coming on stream. The Convention Centre Dublin opens in September and Terminal 2 at Dublin Airport also opens later this year. Recent investment in other venues like the Ulster Museum and Belfast City Hall adds weightto our tourism offering. I went to a show at the new Grand Canal Theatre, which is better than anything I have seen in Broadway or the West End.

“These are certainly reasons to be optimistic. We have to keep on plugging away.”