Tourism Ireland boss Niall Gibbons has predicted a ‘strong rebound’ in tourism for the second half of 2021.
Speaking to Paul Charles on the Flight Deck programme on Travel.Radio, the Tourism Ireland CEO said, “once we get to a critical mass of 60 or 70 per cent [of vaccinations]…I think you’re likely to see some kind of reopening emerging. I think from a tourism perspective in any meaningful way it’s probably going to be Q3 in 2021.”
“The vaccine rollout can’t come quick enough for many of us,” he added, “we’re reasonably confident…that the entire population here will be vaccinated by September.”
“Tourism Ireland is preparing for a significant relaunch in the latter half of the year, and I think – certainly from the research that we’re seeing – there’s a huge pent-up demand for travel and the big difference between the difficulties we have now versus the global financial crisis [of] 10, 11 years ago [is that] now the government has taken on responsibility for that, so people are actually saving at a much faster rate….households savings in Ireland are very, very significant and I think one thing people will be keen to do is take a holiday.”
