Confidence in the tourism sector is the highest it has been since the recession, according to Fáilte Ireland.
Outlining its end of year report, the tourism agency said almost every business in the industry was expecting a year as good if not better than 2013, which in itself saw visitor numbers increase by 7 per cent.
Some 98 per cent of businesses expect that this year will be at least as good as last year. Advance bookings are already ahead of a year ago and seven out of 10 hotels are anticipating further growth.
The B&B sector, which has been particularly challenged by the downturn, is also expressing optimism with 95 per cent of operators expecting increased or existing levels of business this year.
The industry is expecting to add 6,000 to 8,000 jobs by the end of 2014.
Hotel occupancy in Dublin is higher than it has ever been even during the boom helped by the growth of business tourism from the Convention Centre Dublin and the proliferation of events in the O2 and the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre which have opened since the recession started.
Fáilte Ireland chief executive Shaun Quinn said there was a "very strong mood in the trade" about this year. "We are out of the survival phase," he said. The domestic market generated €1.4 billion in tourism revenue.
He anticipated growth in this sector along with business tourism and overseas leisure tourism. Fáilte Ireland says that growth in the next five years will be from established markets in North America and continental Europe.
Value for money with continental visitors is the highest since Ireland joined the euro and is up for North American visitors, according to Fáilte Ireland’s visitor survey.
Perceptions of value for money are complicated for British visitors by the currency differentials.
Overall the number of visitors saying Ireland constitutes value for money has gone from 29 per cent in 2009 to 49 per cent last year. The number of those who said it constituted poor value for money fell from 41 per cent to 13 per cent in the same time period.
Mr Quinn described the Gathering as a success and said it accounted for 53 per cent of the increase in tourism numbers last year, while also generating €170 million in revenue which exceeded its targets.
The Gathering was strongest in parts of the country which had a large diaspora. The counties with the most Gatherings per head of population were Longford, Leitrim, Mayo and Monaghan which are not traditional tourism counties.
Numbers were up 9 per cent last year in Dublin. However, Mr Quinn said Dublin could be doing a lot better.
Fáilte Ireland’s own research carried out by the Grow Dublin taskforce showed that Dublin was “traditional and boring, a dark grey city” to those who had not visited it.
He said Dublin was attractive to a generation of young people and not because of the pubs. He said it was one of the few European cities which had the sea and the countryside in such close proximity. It attracted what is known in the trade as “young social energisers”who are “looking for high octane days and nights.”
Fáilte Ireland are now looking at three separate and distinctive ways of improving Ireland’s tourism project.
The first, concentrated in the west of Ireland will be on the natural scenery and particularly the Wild Atlantic Way, the second will be the promotion of Dublin as a city break destination and the third will be focused on the midlands, south and east and will emphasis heritage including Waterford’s viking heritage and Kilkenny’s past as a medieval city.
