With leading experts forecasting continued growth in activity holidays the importance of adventure tourism in Ireland was the key concern at Carlow Tourism’s tourism conference.
Already a high-yield sector, adventure tourism is one of the fastest growing areas of the travel industry today, now accounting for over 25% of all global travel. It is an area in which Ireland is perfectly placed to play a major role.
The conference heard from industry experts who provided some best practice examples of activity tourism in Ireland.
Among those was Fáilte Ireland’s Ethna Murphy and Tracey Coughlan who set out Fáilte Ireland’s strategy for growing this sector sharing details of the current global trends in adventure tourism and how Ireland is positioning itself to maximize this opportunity for Ireland. An initial and important platform to do this is the 2014 Adventure Travel World Summit (ATWS), which we will host in Killarney in October.
Tracey Coughlan, Experience Development, Fáilte Ireland explained –
“When we think about adventure tourism we often think about hard core activities like bungy jumping and mountain climbing, but the reality is that 90% of all adventure tourism is soft such as walking, angling and watersports. Ireland has these softer types of adventures in abundance and when combined with our incredible landscape and naturally engaging people, a very unique adventure experience starts to emerge. The opportunities for growth in adventure tourism from our identified global segments look very promising.
"Growing this sector is a key priority for Fáilte Ireland and as we prepare to welcome the Global Adventure Travel Summit to Ireland, we look forward to working with Irish operators and showcasing the very best of our unique Irish adventure experiences.”
Download a full copy of the full Fáilte Ireland presentation here
10 Facts about the Adventure Tourism Market
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Adventure tourism is big business, 26% of all global travel is adventure based.
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High value potential for Ireland – adventure travellers spend 45% more than other travellers
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We are targeting 5 of the 6 top spending nations
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Globally 90% of adventure is “soft”
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Ireland is also 90% “soft”
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Walking in Ireland is currently a key driver
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People “think” hard adventure but “do” soft
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Ireland’s adventure experience is about the combination of nature, culture and the outdoor activity
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Adventure customers are “not young men”, 51% are women;
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42% of adventure customers are aged between 41 & 60
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Find out more about the Adventure Travel Trade Summit and Adventure Tourism at
www.failteireland.ie
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