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Why fewer visitors came to Moville this year

Posted Wednesday, September 8, 2010

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Fewer Visitors

According to my father, Gerry senior, who is 82 and comes here every summer, July was the worst July for visitors to the town that he had seen.

There was a little pick up in August but it was down on the previous year.

So, why didn't people come?

Wrong Scenario

It was being said that people wouldn't take holidays abroad this year because of the downturn and they would take more of their holidays in Ireland.

That didn't happen.

However, it wasn't just Moville that this didn't happen for.

Inward holidays in Ireland were down 30% this year on last year.

Massive

That's a massive amount.

Why anyone would have expected the numbers to go up and Moville to have a mini-boom based on people who stayed at home to holiday rather than going abroad I don't know.

After all, weren't people saying peviously that one of the reasons for Moville's decline as a holiday resort was that it was much cheaper to go abroad on holiday to somewhere like Portugal or Turkey?

Cancel Moville

So, why would anyone cancel their foreign holiday and replace it with a trip to Moville which would be much more expensive for them?

As people get more than two weeks holidays a year they would be more likely to cancel the week or weekend in Moville that they normally took and keep the foreign holiday - or cancel both if they really were down on their luck.

Sterling

As far as people from Britain or Northern Ireland are concerned, the strength of sterling is another factor.

It's not as bad as it has been but at €1.20 to the pound it is still much worse than it was a couple of years ago when it was in the €1.40 to €1.50 range.

Perhaps one hope that Ireland (and Moville) has is that its nearest neighbour, and best trading partner, Britain continues to come out of recession, as it has been doing this year, and that sterling rises against the Euro.

That's probably our best hope.

Short Term

However, in the short term, the indications ar that the down season in Moville (i.e. all the year except for a few summer months) are going to be even worse than last year's grim period.

As B&Bs close down and hotels close or go into administration and pubs and restaurants close too, perhaps it is time to come up with a plan for the future of Moville.

Moville's recent boom was not based on the high tech Celtic Tiger but on the construction boom that came in its wake.

However, it is going to be a very long time before there is another construction boom.

New Ideas Needed

Perhaps new ideas, including the Montgomery idea, should be thrown out unless better ideas are found (and they haven't so far).

After all, if Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness can become the chuckle brothers just a few miles south of us then surely Moville can come to terms with, and exploit, it's connection with Britain's biggest miltary war hero.

Moville has been declining.

The very future of Moville and its prospects for its children may depend on Moville re-inventing itself.