So where is the 'British tourists bonanza' after the queen has gone?

Fáilte Ireland is unimpressed with the number of British visitors this year

BY MARK MOLONEY

IN the lead-up to the state visit by the Queen of England, newspapers and radio shows bombarded the native populace with a plethora of quislings and 'experts' telling us that the visit of an unelected British monarch would be 'great for tourism'.

But, alas, despite these predictions,  Shaun Quinn of Fáilte Ireland has today informed us that British tourist numbers are actually down! The tourist chief says:

We're picking up very few Brits.

And the numbers are not just down. They are wayyyyy down. Half-a-million fewer British holidaymakers chose Ireland for their summer getaway. (When compared with 2007 statistics). And while there are indications of a slight increase since this time last year, much of this can be attributed to the Volcanic Ash cloud which closed Europe to air traffic in 2010.

These figures are bound to come as a surprise to many who had been touting the visit as some sort of quick-fix for our economic woes.

Hospitality News was adamant about the benefits that would shower upon us ahead of Queenie's trip:

The state visit of Queen Elizabeth II to Ireland in May will provide a major boost for Irish tourism in the British market. The visit is certain to attract saturation coverage from the British media and locations visited by the Queen will be strongly featured.

Indeed, Fáilte Ireland itself was already proclaiming the visit a massive success only hours after Betty had left our shores. "Queen’s Visit brings Major Boost to Irish Tourism." boasted the Fáilte website.

But now the reality is dawning that not only did we waste more than €40million of taxpayers' money showing the rest of the world how we had “moved on” (apparently inviting the head of a backwards unelected sectarian dynasty to speed through the cordoned-off streets of our capital in a bullet-proof limo is somehow progressive) but the predicted tourism boost which was supposed to off-set the cost of the whole production hasn't materialised.

Queenie eye, queenie eye, where's the tourists?