Tourism Ireland was worried a Lonely Planet article about the cost of visiting Ireland would get “amplified” across the world.
The piece was written due to a “low but consistent number of complaints” about rising bills for holidaymakers visiting here.
Online monitoring had found a steady level of complaints from visitors with 55 of 68 issues raised in a single week relating to costs, and 42% specifically about car hire.
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Tourism Ireland said there was continuing “low-level feedback” on the cost of car rental as well as hotel room costs from trade partners and on social media. However, the state body revealed they had so far largely escaped negative coverage in mainstream media in a briefing paper.
The country-by-country special report said trade partners in France were particularly concerned about “ongoing price and availability issues”.
Operators in France were seeing hotel room allocations cancelled as well as “very high weekday rates for Dublin city centre hotels”. The report stated: “Price increases in restaurants have also been flagged as a concern.
“In addition, some tour operators have reported that key attractions no longer take group bookings – a critical component of a group tour for holidaymakers.”
Belgium and the Netherlands reported issues with cancelled hotel rooms due to their reallocation for refugees.
However, other operators said group bookings were doing “very well” and that they had been able to find alternative accommodation.
The feedback from Germany was “still very positive” with high interest in Ireland and the travel industry there unable to meet summer demand.
Tourism Ireland was concerned about the Lonely Planet article after it warned tourists of “soaring hotel costs” and how renting a car would make a “significant dent” in a visitor’s budget.
An internal email said: “Danger of it getting amplified across countries as a tourism topic.”
The report – released under FoI – was prepared in-house by Tourism Ireland.
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