The committee representing tourism in Ireland has recently said that it is quite worried that the recuperation of the sector is yet to reach its full circle.

Highlighting its newest monthly dashboard for tourism, the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation explained that rising inflation is actually harming the profitability of the business and this together with limited supply of accommodation, which signifies in spite of strong demand there remains major apprehension for the years to come.

The Chief Executive of ITIC, Eoghan O’Mara Walsh, said that it is obvious that numbers in the airport are inflated by the residents going to foreign countries as hotel occupancy is overblown by humanitarian contracts.

To the country, the real numbers of visitors are still well below the pre- pandemic times and this is definitely creating a huge challenge for the country’s tourism which is the largest indigenous industry of Ireland and the biggest local employer at the same time.

To Ireland, the dashboard shows that 1.66 million tourists came between the periods April to June. They spent €1.96 billion here. Over the three months, the most valuable market was North America. From here, visitors had spent around €827m. Britain was the biggest single source market for Ireland.

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The Cantii Way, a chain of trails and roads explained as a circuit of Kent by the Cycling UK, a campaign group introduced in May last year.

Cycling UK said that since the time it was opened, a map of the route had been downloaded over 5,000 times.

Cycling UK’s Sophie Gordon said that they know that cycle tourism does provide a major boost up to the rural areas. On an everyday basis, people expend almost £84 on food and accommodation.

Through the Dover’s white cliffs, Canterbury Cathedral, and the Royal Military Canal, this 145-mile route passes through.

The route was based on a current sphere around Canterbury and Folkestone, extended to Whitstable, located in the north and Dungeness in south.

The Hub, a cycling-themed café, will be opening in Wye close to Ashford shortly, and the route is being encouraged in other countries.

It appears typical England to US people or other places, said Ms Gordon, with amazing shoreline and fish and chips, the forests and the beautiful thatched cottages.

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Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) Chief Executive Mark Tanzer and Director of Public Affairs Luke Petherbridge met with veteran Conservative MP John Whittingdale, on August 15, who has replaced Julia Lopez, who is on maternity leave, as the tourism portfolio holder at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS).

Whittingdale was informed by the delegation on the huge economic contribution that travel makes in terms of spending and jobs, as well as some of the numerous issues the sector is currently facing post-Brexit and post-pandemic.

“The outbound sector contributes £49 billion a year in economic activity and employs 843,000 people,” said Tanzer.

“The average traveller spends £670 in the UK before departure, and this spending helps to support communities and jobs right across the UK. While is clear from our discussion the minister already understands this point, we must never miss an opportunity to reiterate that message.”

Lack of ministerial continuity after Nigel Huddleston’s two-and-a-half year tenure from February 2020 to September 2022 has strained the relationship between travel and the DCMS. After a number of transient replacements, Lopez was chosen for the position in March 2023. In May, she went on maternity leave.

Tanzer emphasized that ABTA will continue to focus on finding answers in its political outreach and lobbying in the aftermath of the epidemic.

“We know how important it is to present government with solutions,” he said.

Whittingdale and Tanzer spoke about a number of hot topics, including the recent wildfires in southern Europe, particularly Rhodes. ABTA took this opportunity to promote the advantages of booking high-quality package travel and to lay out the industry’s position on the impending reforms of the Package Travel Regulations.

The topic of several of ABTA’s top policy concerns came up throughout the discussion, including posted workers and suggested reforms to post-secondary education for young people interested in pursuing jobs in travel and tourism.

“On both points, it is important DCMS, as our home government department, is up to date on our views and that they are able to represent these in their cross-government discussions,” said Tanzer. “Through our ongoing engagement with officials within the department, Abta will ensure this remains the case.

“It was good to be able to talk through our proposals around the extension of the youth mobility scheme, and also to share more on how we’re bringing industry together to work on the future of travel and tourism courses within further education.”

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This week, the Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia Meloni paid an unexpected visit to Albania, connecting with
thousands of summer vacationers who have selected the Balkan nation over Italy’s rising expenses and
severe weather.

Meloni picked a low-cost path, going for a ferry ride from the southern Italian section of Puglia where she
holidayed with her family to the Albanian port of Vlorë.

Albania is one of Europe’s poorest nations. It has fought for decades to get rid of a status for fraud and
systematized wrongdoing that made hundreds of thousands of Albanians to move away from their
country.

However, Albania is now reveling in a financial renewal partly because of a tourism explosion. Enticed by its Mediterranean beaches at reasonable prices, airline commuters to Albania doubled more than from the expected levels in June compared to the equivalent time a year before, as per ACI Europe, an organizations of airport operators. The inaugural of inexpensive paths to Albanian airports backed to that increase, said ACI.

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The popular country for tourism is expected to welcome a record number of tourists in 2023, and the authorities are determined to establish an environment that visitors but also residents can enjoy.

In an effort to establish that, the respective authorities have introduced restrictive measures and plan to fine tourists that refuse to abide, Schengen Visa website reports.

For example, tourists cannot show up or walk around the city without clothes and certainly cannot swim in the canals.

In addition, a news agency reveals that tourists have to be mindful of where they sit, as doing so on sidewalks and bridges can get them fined.

However, the decision to impose an entry fee on tourists visiting Venice, who won’t stay the night, has been postponed for next year, with the measure being tested on trial bases for 20 days when plenty of visitors are in the city.

Back in 2019, the city received 5.5 million visitors – almost 100 times more than the Venetian population.

Additionally, some beaches are also introducing measures to prevent over-tourism, with many beaches on Baunei on Sardinia being restricted with a limitation in the number of places on such beaches and having to be reserved and paid prior to the visit.

Moving around the tourist destinations in Italy can be more limited as tourists are now banned from bringing their own cars to the island of Linosa and Lampedusa, as well as Procida in the Gulf of Naples.

Furthermore, access to the Pragser Wildsee Lake, a popular tourist destination, has been restricted as tourists can only go there by booking a ticket online in advance and only use public transport to get there, as the managing authorities are trying to limit the influx of tourists.

Portofino, one of the most visited places in Italy, has also been under some implementation of measures with zones that are more common to take pictures at, risking a fine of up to €275.

In the town centre, walking around barefoot, in a bikini or partially undressed is prohibited.

The situation has deteriorated as Venice risks being placed under UNESCO’s danger list, severely over-tourism impacting the destination.

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When a portion of the cliff that a group of visitors were standing near to collapsed, they made a lucky escape. The event reportedly occurred near Dorset’s West Bay, and the footage has now surfaced on social media, where it is gaining popularity.

Additionally sharing the video on Twitter, the Dorset Council cautioned users that “rockfalls and landslips” could occur at any time. According to the outlet’s citation of authority employees, the incident forced the closure of West Bay.

According to Express, there was a 150-foot-high cliff that collapsed in pieces. The beachgoers saw it, ran for their life, and narrowly avoided being crushed by the boulders.

One of them, a man in an orange t-shirt, is seen taking a picture of the World Heritage Site in the video as little rocks start to fall.Before a significant portion of the stone separates from the cliff, some mud and dust fall.The debris fell into the sea, yet their lives were not lost.

Following the viewing of the clip, social media users were shocked.

“I cannot believe people stood watching. Breaks my heart to see this, my favourite happy place,” said one of them. “Warning signs everywhere but they still take no notice. Great footage of our falling cliffs,” commented another.

According to Express’s article, the perilous cliffs, which are known as the Jurassic Coast’s Golden Gateway, are miles long and extremely dangerous.

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Türkiye is slated for a positive tourism period. However, realizing the aims for this year would be
puzzling because of the country’s high price rises and absence of reasonable picks for budget-conscious overseas tourists, said industry people.

The amount of travelers coming to Türkiye during the first quarter of this year amplified by 17 percent
equalled to the equivalent time in 2022, getting to 22.9 million, said Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, Türkiye’s Tourism and Culture Minister in Istanbul.

Incomes from the tourism segment touched 21.7 billion dollars in the course of the first six months of this year, marking a 27 percent upsurge from the earlier year.

However, in spite of these positive statistics, Ersoy said that the possession degrees in hotels providing to
higher-income sections and definite overseas traveler clusters fell short of anticipations.

The statistics authorizes that the government’s determined objectives of attaining 60 million overseas
influxes and making 56 billion dollars in earnings by this year might be problematic to attain.

Ersoy credited few of the challenges to unforeseen procedures, like the distressing tremors in south-
eastern Türkiye in February, which concurred with the initial reservation time. Moreover, lengthy cool climate up to middle of July influenced last-minute reservations.

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Bruges, the city in Belgium is known for its eye-catching cobblestone has recently hit by summertime tourism and has strike the red line. This canal city every year welcomes almost eight million visitors, mostly at the summer time. However, this time the city is hit with the ill-impact of over tourism which has left the locals totally confused. Though, they are not against tourism, as it’s one of the lucrative things that attracts money.

But, the city residents think that everything needs to be balanced here. At present the level of Bruges tourism is back to the height that existed during pre-Covid times, things are getting out of hand now. Now, several cruise ships docking at the Zeebrugge port and this is creating huge trouble for the passengers as well.

This city is one of the most charming historical canal cities of Europe.  Amsterdam and Venice is also experiencing the cruise situation and both of them have adopted steps to stop cruise ships. UNESCO in fact has suggested putting Venice on its endangered list due to excessive tourism.

On the list of the most overcrowded destinations in Europe, the Greek island of Rhodes and Bruges have their names. Dubrovnik in Croatia is also badly impacted by over-tourism challenges.

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The processing time for Schengen visa for travelling to Germany has been brought down to eight weeks and efforts are on to reduce it further, Georg Enzweiler, Deputy Head of Mission at the German Embassy here, said Wednesday.

A Schengen visa is a short-stay (up to 90 days) visa that allows a person to travel to any member of the 27-country Schengen Area of Europe for tourism or business purposes.

The delays in visa processing have been a dampener for Europe travel.

The German Embassy had in April issued an advisory saying, due to a sharp increase in demand for Schengen visas, longer waiting times for appointments and longer visa processing times apply.

The processing time for Schengen Visa starts only once the application reaches the Consulate. This might take up to six working days depending on the delivery conditions and public holidays.

According to new data from the German National Tourist Board, Indian tourists spent more than 6.23 lakh nights in Germany in 2022, a 209 per cent increase compared to the previous year, but the number was still 65 per cent of the pre-pandemic levels .

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Croatia witnessed 2.7mn arrival of tourists in June 2023, and 13.2mn nights in terms of commercial accommodations. It went up 2.8% and 0.9% respectively, according to the Croatian Bureau of Statistics.

With approximately a fifth of the GDP coming from the travel sector, the economy of Croatia is till now the most dependent on international visitors among its European peers. Croatia last year generated €15bn in tourism alone. This corresponds to10% of all foreign tourism receipts in Southern Europe.

Domestic tourists showed 288,000 arrivals for 905,000 nights. It was down 0.6% in terms of arrivals however, it went up 0.1% in nights y/y. In the meantime, international tourists have grown considerably with 2.4mn arrivals followed by 12.3mn nights. This marked a 3.2% increase in arrivals
and a 0.9% growth in nights m/m.

In spite of a drop of 20.2% in terms of arrivals and 11.0% in night stay from Germans, the country still continued to be the top source of overseas tourists, accounting for 30.1% of nights and 19.4% of arrivals.

After Germany, Austria with 10.5%, Slovenia with 8.4%, Poland with around 8.2%, the Czech Republic with almost 6.3%, and the United Kingdom with 4.7%.

For domestic tourists, Crikvenica was the top place as overseas tourists loved Rovinj in June 2023.

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