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Vaccine is ‘Hope on the Horizon’

Tourism Ireland is now looking to the second half of 2021 for a possible re-opening of tourism, its ceo said yesterday. ngibbons1219

Participating in an industry webinar attended by 500 operators and professionals, he said that vaccine ‘is the hope on the horizon’

Views on a ‘vaccine passport’ for travel are divided, he said with some concern about ‘vaccine apartheid’- exclusion of developing countries where roll-out will be slow. The EU is currently debating the issue and he said that a ‘European consensus’ would be a positive development. He also felt ‘assured’ by the Irish vaccination roll-out plan.

Plans to promote Ireland holidays in GB, originally scheduled for St. Patrick’s weekend, have been put on hold, but the world-wide ‘Greening’ project will again take place. A major promotion for NI has been postponed, but attractive publicity opportunities exist in several markets and the highly successful social media campaign will continue.

He said that Ireland had achieved a ‘best case scenario’ from the EU-UK deal on Brexit, with the common travel area intact. There will however be some changes for GB visitors to Ireland including health insurance

Little ‘Comfort’ among Holiday Visitors

Holidymakers from Great Britain, Frane, Germany and USA are not yet comfortable with travelling abroad, but a fundamental desire to travel remains in these markets, Tourism visitors

Ireland research reveals.

On 4-17 December 2020, Tourism Ireland commissioned the sixth wave of its COVID-19 consumer research. The research was undertaken by RedC Research. Online surveys were conducted with 1,000 outbound holidaymakers in each of our top four markets (Great Britain, the United States, Germany and France). Participants had all taken an overseas holiday in the past three years or intend to take one in the next two years (not just sun breaks).

Comfort levels with taking a short break or holiday in Europe fell after summer 2020, as case numbers began to rise and it became clear that the summer was a reprieve rather than an end to COVID-19. Although outbound holidaymakers from Great Britain reported a slight improvement in comfort in December, the general low level of comfort continued.

Incoming travellers face quarantine

Government Ministers will consider proposals to introduce mandatory quarantine for passengers arriving into the State who do not have a valid PCR test showing they are Covid michealmartin0520

negative.

“There’s a lot of concern about the variants across the member states, people are really worried about it,” Taoiseach Micheál Martin told the Irish Times following a video conference of EU leaders.

The Cabinet is coming under increasing pressure to introduce tougher restrictions after the State’s public health team said existing pre-flight tests were not enough and the EU mulls a ban on non-essential travel between member states.

The Cabinet will meet on Tuesday and move to extend Level 5 restrictions until late February at least as the virus continues to spread in the State and hospitals continue to be under severe pressure.

Trump resorts take revenue hit

Donald Trump’s business empire has been hit hard by coronavirus closures, with revenue from his Washington and Las Vegas hotels down by more than half. doonbeg0519

In his last financial disclosure form as US president, Mr Trump detailed the damage the pandemic has wrought, at a time when many tourism businesses are suffering from a lack of travellers.

In Ireland, where Mr Trump owns the Doonbeg golf resort in Co Clare, and the UK, revenues at his golf courses dropped by roughly two-thirds, part of a 27% overall decline in golfing revenue from the prior year.

Revenue from the Trump hotel in Washington, which he had been trying to sell, fell to $15.1m (€12.4m) from $40.5 million a year earlier, according to the disclosure.

Name at Pizza Hut

A couple has put a call out on social media on what to name their new pizza business - and people really delivered. pizzabox

Elisha Reamonn and Cuan Rynhart built a mobile trailer they currently call "a box with no name" which they intend to use for a tour of Connemara, once restrictions are lifted.

Elisha's sister Dorcas put a call out on Twitter for best and worst suggestions for a business name.

The couple were delighted at the response they received.

"The names just started flooding in. It's brilliant," said Cuan Rynhart.

"People really being generous with their imagination. It was lovely," added Elisha Reamonn.

The culinary couple have a shortlist of their favourite naming suggestions so far.

"Colm Tobin put up a great one. He said, 'A View to Achill'.