Tourism in Ireland during Covid-19
Did you make a list of your 2020 travel plans at the end of 2019? Do these plans finish now?
As the Covid-19 quickly spread from early 2020 and still influences us till now, almost all activities with the movement of people have been significantly affected. One of them is tourism. According to the data collected by WTTC(World Travels & Tourism Council), the total contribution of Travel & Tourism to Ireland’s GDP in 2019 is 4.2%. But in 2020, it turned into 1.2%. Also, the statistics of the international visitor spend shows it reduced steeply from 12.5 billion euro to 3 billion euro, 76.4% decrease. However, these are macro data, therefore, they can only draw some rough conclusions. So what are the specifics of Ireland’s tourism like during the epidemic?
Overseas travelers in Ireland
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Ireland receives a large number of visitors from all over the world every year. In 2018, there are 10,617,000 people taking overseas trips to Ireland. And in 2019, there are 10,808,000 travelers from other countries taking trips to Ireland. As such, Ireland’s tourism not only creates a contribution to GDP but also creates a significant number of jobs. Like in 2019, it creates 139,000 jobs which are six percent of total employment.
However, the pandemic changed nearly this whole field. According to the statistics which are released by CSO of overseas travel, this graph shows that Covid-19 gives a strong hit to Ireland’s tourism, especially during 2020. As you can see, in the early of last year, most of the countries have not had outbreaks yet, the statistics are even higher than early 2019. But, the number of overseas visitors declined steeply in the months of April, May, and June. And after this serious decrease, the figures have been up and down. Even after many different types of vaccines are developed, and vaccination started in countries and vaccination rates are increasing, and the statistics have been better, they are still can’t compare to those before the outbreak.
Irish travelers’ domestic trip
Until this year’s second quarter, there are 1,268,000 Irish residents who took domestic trips. In 2020, which is the worst year of the epidemic, there are 2,160,000 Irish citizens who took domestic trips in the first two quarters. And there are 7,484,000 residents who took domestic trips in the whole year.
But, it is not enough to know just some number. CSO gives the data about the reason why Irish residents choose domestic trips in 2020.
Here are 3 specific reasons why people choose domestic trips: holiday, business, and visiting friends or relatives. It shows that the most common reason for traveling is ‘holiday’, while the fewest people travel because of ‘business’. But actually, the reason why they choose domestic trips is complicated. Except for the main purpose, the reason that chooses ‘holiday’ combines travelers’ travel budgets, spare time, policies during the pandemic, health problems, etc.
To revitalize the Tourism & Travel
Because tourism is one of the important pillar industries in Ireland, and it is impossible to stop tourism completely. So Ireland’s Tourism and the Irish government are exploring how to revitalize the tourism industry during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.
This graph compares the number of overseas arrivals to Ireland in 2019 and 2020.
As you can see, the UK has contributed the most tourists in both 2019 and 2020. And European countries also contributed the most tourists than other continents. Furthermore, even there are also many tourists from China and Australia, but because of the epidemic and the epidemic prevention policy, the number of tourists from these two countries or other countries like them decreased steeply after the early of 2020.
Therefore, Tourism Ireland shared their plans for restarting overseas tourism for 2021. One of the most important times is around St Patrick’s Day, which is one of the famous attractions in Ireland. As such, Tourism Ireland uploads a video on Youtube and other social media during the Christmas holiday to wake up tourists’ desire to travel to Ireland. Also, according to the data of overseas arrivals in 2020, Tourism Ireland decided to focus on countries closer to Ireland instead of all markets.
Moreover, it is also important to find ways to stimulate the domestic tourism market. In the early September of 2020, the Ireland Government released the “Stay and Spend Scheme” policy from 1 October 2020 to 30 Aprile 2021, to increase tourism spending among the citizens.
According to these, Tourism Ireland released a three-phase plan: RESTART, REBUILD, REDESIGN. The RESTART phase will involve a range of start-up activities in markets that are likely to deliver visitor volume quickly, once there is a suitable time in 2021. As demand begins to recover, the REBUILD phase will involve promotion in the markets with the greatest potential to generate revenue. During the REDESIGN phase, demand management will be introduced to ensure a sustainable future for tourism.
But it will take a long time
One statistic by CSO shows that from March 2020 to April 2021, there are 39.6% of citizens canceled their domestic trip due to Covid-19. The trip intention table (Aril 2021) illustrates that 73.6% of people prefer domestic trips in the next 6 months, 8.4% want to travel after 6–12 months, only 2.6% want to take the trip after more than a year. Also, 15.3% of people don’t want to have any trips.
Even Tourism Ireland and Ireland Government try very hard to develop a variety of plans to revitalize the tourism industry and release suitable policies, it will also be a long term to restart Ireland tourism. Because it is still difficult to correctly predict the future trend of the epidemic. Perhaps this pandemic will end one day in the future, but it will be difficult for our society’s condition to turn back. Because everything is changed quietly during the pandemic, and people are adopting slowly to catch on to the society’s changes. Or, maybe we will live in this way forever.
