Stark warning that Mayo tourism is in 'big trouble'

Mayo councillors have warned that the county’s tourism industry is in "big trouble".

The council's monthly meeting heard that there had been a stark drop-off in visitors to some of the county’s top tourist attractions. 

Fine Gael Cllr Peter Flynn said visitors to Croagh Patrick and the Great Western Greeney have dropped by 50%.

Independent Cllr Christy Hyland detailed how Croagh Patrick visitor numbers have plummeted from 109,000 in 2018 to 51,000 up to November 2023. Greenway visitor figures fell from 190,000 to 108,000 during the same period.

“If Westport goes down economically God help this county,” said Cllr Hyland. "Sixteen shops I counted recently in Westport that are closed and nobody wants to rent them, and more coming down the tracks in the next few weeks."

Cllr Michael Kilcoyne said the commercial decisions being taken by hotels are driving the drop-off.

“This is being driven by people, particularly in the hotel business, deciding to stop accepting tourists and hand it over to the Government for the housing of people who find themselves here.

“I think this whole thing needs to be reviewed. Businesses set up in Westport on foot of tourism and the Greenway and now look what has happened. It's like building a river and all of a sudden there is a drought,” he remarked.

Cllr Gerry Coyle said high hotel costs are turning off tourists. 

“The cost of staying in hotels Is out of control,” he stated.

Cllr Damien Ryan said there "needs to be a proper move away from tourism being the facilitator for housing". 

"Hotels have become scarce, the costs have gone through the roof. That’s why our numbers have dwindled and diminished. We never got the opportunity to recover post-Covid because of the crisis that we are in."

Last month it was reported that there had been a drop of almost one-third in the number of international visitors to Ireland. CSO tourism figures show the number of visitors dropped from 737,600 in August to 582,100 in September.