Hoteliers concerned about shortening of overseas visits
The Irish Hotels Federation has expressed concern about the fact that overseas visitors are taking shorter holidays in Ireland than previously.
Addressing the federation's annual conference in Cork today, IHF chief executive John Power said the number of overseas visits to Ireland increased by 3% to 6.4m last year.
However, he also said revenue remained static because these visitors were taking shorter breaks of three to five nights instead of the traditional two-week stay.
Mr Power also expressed concern about the rising popularity of low-cost destinations in eastern Europe and the fact that this may be causing a fall-off in visitors from Britain, which were down by 1% last year.
He said marketing campaigns in Britain would have to be improved to arrest the decline due to the importance of British tourists to the Irish industry.
