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Tourism Ireland was worried article about visit cost for holidaymakers would get 'amplified'

There has been a steady level of online complaints from visitors to Ireland, a Tourism Ireland report said.

TOURISM IRELAND WAS worried a Lonely Planet article about the cost of visiting Ireland would get “amplified” across the world amid a “low but consistent number of complaints” about rising bills for holidaymakers visiting here.

Monitoring had found there was a steady level of online complaints from visitors to Ireland on social media with 55 of 68 issues raised in a single week relating to costs, and 42% of all complaints specifically about car hire.

The state agency said there was continuing “low-level feedback” on the cost of renting a car as well as hotel room costs from trade partners and on social media.

However, Tourism Ireland said they had so far largely escaped negative coverage in mainstream media in a briefing paper.

The country-by-country special report on rising costs said trade partners in France were particularly concerned about “ongoing price and availability issues”.

Operators in France were seeing hotel room allocations cancelled as well as “very high weekday rates for Dublin city centre hotels”.

“Price increases in restaurants have also been flagged as a concern,” said the report, “in addition, some tour operators have reported that key attractions no longer take group bookings – a critical component of a group tour for holidaymakers.”

In Belgium and the Netherlands, tour operators reported issues with cancelled hotel rooms due to their reallocation for refugees fleeing Ukraine.

However, other operators said group bookings were doing “very well” and that so far, they had been able to find alternative accommodation.

The feedback from Germany was also “still very positive” with high interest in holidays in Ireland and the travel industry there actually unable to meet demand for July and August.

The special report said: “Tour operators have reported that additional costs are frequently being borne by themselves and hotels as a proportion of these sales were booked in advance by consumers (when rates were lower). Rental cars are a challenge in terms of cost and availability.”

In Spain, costs were a “hot topic,” but concern there primarily centred on their own tourism industry rather than what was happening elsewhere.

From the USA, there was feedback about the supply of accommodation and car rental.

There had also been high-profile coverage of the queue and baggage issues that have affected Dublin Airport for the past number of months.

In the UK, coverage of costs was mainly confined to a newspaper for the Irish diaspora with national media there more focused on “rail strikes”.

Online monitoring had seen an uptick of weekly complaints during mid-June from 56 to 68 with the level deemed “low but consistent”.

The report added: “The markets with the highest number of messages received around these topics were from Italy, BeneLux [Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg] and the US. Complaints currently represent only around 2% of weekly engagements.”

On car hire, the report said rental prices were an issue in many countries and continued to get widespread media coverage.

However, while high car prices here were occasionally used as an example, Ireland had not been identified “as an outlier on the topic”.

Tourism Ireland were also worried about an article from travel bible Lonely Planet, which warned tourists of “soaring hotel costs” and how renting a car would make a “significant dent” in a visitor’s budget.

An internal email said: “It came up as a top story alert for me on Twitter so will keep an eye on that – danger of it getting amplified across countries as a tourism topic.”

A colleague responded to say: “Thanks, we’ll … keep an eye out for whether this is picked up in non-Irish media.”

In an information note, Tourism Ireland said the country-by-country report – which was released under FOI – was one in a weekly series prepared by their in-house strategy and insights team.

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    Mute Frank Dubogovik
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    Oct 6th 2018, 7:33 AM

    anyone else suffering from ” brexit fatigue”…its been non stop in the media for nigh on 2years. every day there’s a new ” angle”…a new “scare” story. The world isn’t going to stop turning in March 2019- deal or no deal.I wonder what’s the media going to be so obsessed with after brexit

    96
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    Mute FartyTowels
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    Oct 6th 2018, 8:24 AM

    @Frank Dubogovik: completely agree. However I want to know will brexit mean that we will once again be able to buy duty free on ferries between Ireland and the UK? Up yours high duty on my beloved vino

    33
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    Mute JustOneScoop
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    Oct 6th 2018, 9:22 AM

    @Frank Dubogovik: no not really.just because your a bot programmed to disperse apathy doesn’t change the fact that brexit is an immensely serious problem for this island. Disperse your apathy elsewhere

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    Mute Frank Dubogovik
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    Oct 6th 2018, 9:59 AM

    @JustOneScoop: ??? whatever morphine or cocaine or whatever you’re on there lad you need to check the doses. I’m a “bot”…wtf is that that supposed to mean??

    9
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    Mute Tweed Cap
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    Oct 6th 2018, 7:25 AM

    The product will still be there. It just might (or not) be subject to a customs check, like 100% of all other non EU goods that come through Irish & European Ports.
    The way some people are going on you’d swear the Brits were intent on rolling up their country like a carpet and moving it to the Southern Hemisphere.
    After next March, they’ll still be right next door, doing fine and getting on with life. And all the disappointed drama junkies will find something else to fret about. Somebody rightly compared all this hysterical carry on to the millennium bug nonsense.

    54
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    Mute Greg Blake
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    Oct 6th 2018, 9:21 AM

    @Tweed Cap: of course it’ll be there. The very reason the world will not come to a grinding halt is that these things are being put out there, now, by organisations such as this. So their concern is that it will be business as usual for most of them providing the bureaucrats do their thing in the background. ‘It’ll be alright on the night‘ requires the backstage staff to be on the ball.

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    Mute JustOneScoop
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    Oct 6th 2018, 9:22 AM

    @Tweed Cap: bot alert . Incoming

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    Mute John Horan
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    Oct 6th 2018, 10:47 AM

    @Tweed Cap: Incorrect. You cannot import whatever you like from the rest of the world into the EU. There are restrictions on certain items coming into the EU but if they are produced in the EU they circulate freely. Additionally the items that get imported to the EU are subject to duties and taxes that make them more expensive. Remember that bit where the customs check your luggage to see what you bought on your shopping trip to NY and if you have certain stuff you get a big bill? Like that but worse

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    Mute wattsed
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    Oct 6th 2018, 11:39 AM

    @Tweed Cap: Agreed. You would think there will be folks watching Sky News at midnight on the night waiting for the country to disappear into a large sinkhole or at best for the UK to be plunged into darkness and wiped out with the plague.

    3
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    Mute eastsmer
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    Oct 6th 2018, 7:04 AM

    Another thing that a United Ireland will solve

    43
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    Mute Michael Kavanagh
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    Oct 6th 2018, 7:09 AM

    @eastsmer: Relactification!

    58
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    Mute Helen O'Neill
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    Oct 6th 2018, 7:55 PM

    Hopefully won’t become an issue as they do incredible work in the milk bank! Such an amazing thing to do m, if you can. I donated almost 6L about2.5 years ago and it’s so lovely to hear back how many babies got your milk and a little broach as a keepsake. Amazing work up there!!

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    Mute Johnny Mason
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    Oct 6th 2018, 8:02 AM

    We survived before without it I am sure we can do it again !

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    Mute AnneMarie Roche
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    Oct 6th 2018, 8:54 AM

    @Johnny Mason: The point is that vulnerable premature babies don’t survive without breast milk. Options of feeding this population is mothers breast milk, donated milk, TPN (nutrition delivered via its veins)-in that order. Mothers supply is often affected by the stressful situation she finds herself in and donated milk is required.

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    Mute Johnny Mason
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    Oct 6th 2018, 12:59 PM

    @AnneMarie Roche: Yes but we don’t need to make a Industry about it and worry ourselves to death !

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    Mute AnneMarie Roche
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    Oct 6th 2018, 10:24 PM

    @Johnny Mason: Tell that to the parents of a premmie born at 24weeks. Just because it doesn’t affect you directly doesn’t make it unimportant. And the Republic could do with “making an industry ” of it, we spend alot of money buying it from the north.

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