Now if you’ll just look to your right: Irish coach tours are enjoying a boom in business thanks to their enduring popularity with Americans and Canadians.
New research shows 369,000 overseas tourists chose to see Ireland through the window of a bus last year — an annual increase of 26 per cent and the highest number since 2010.
While coach travellers accounted for less than 5 per cent of the 7.6 million foreign tourists who visited in 2014, they contributed an estimated €273 million to the economy. The figure represents an average spend of €740 for each person during their stay, according to a report by Failte Ireland, the tourism development authority.
Over 55 per cent, some 204,000, of those who took the tours last year were from the US, Canada and Mexico, a figure which has risen by a third since 2010. The number of British people opting to see Ireland by bus dropped from 89,000 in 2010 to 27,000 in 2014.
Some 87,000 of the visitors were from continental Europe and 51,000 were from other areas, including emerging markets such as China, Japan, India, Australia and New Zealand.
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Unsurprisingly, Irish people are less inclined to take a coach tour around their country. Despite the popularity of the so-called “staycation”, they accounted for just 1 per cent of the 369,000.
Sheila Corek, a flight attendant, was on her way to Kilkenny yesterday as part of a 36-hour visit to Ireland.
“It’s the best and most reliable way to see the country, especially when you have very little time,” she said.
Lauren Ney, another tourist, who works in property in New York, said the trip was the perfect option for her, her partner and her two adult children.
“I would not have wanted to drive on the wrong side of the road. It’s nice and relaxing because you get all the information you need from the tour guide,” she said.
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Alex Connolly, a spokesman for Failte Ireland, said coach tours were an important but niche market.
“The majority of tourists prefer independent travel, but there are those who want help when planning,” he said.
Dublin and the southwest remain the most popular regions for overseas coach tourists to visit, followed by the Shannon area and the rest of the west. Almost 90 per cent spend some time in the capital with three quarters taking in Cork and Kerry during their stay.
The figures show very few coach tourists spend time in the east, midlands and northwest with just 6 to 8 per cent visiting these regions. While Failte Ireland is anxious to see a more even regional spread across Ireland in terms of tourists, it believes coach tour operators will develop services into less-visited parts of the country as a result of recent initiatives.
“The whole purpose of developing the Wild Atlantic Way and Ireland’s Ancient East routes was to create reasons for visitors to move outside the traditional main areas such as the southwest and Galway and see other parts of Ireland,” Mr Connolly said.
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The research found the coach holiday season is spread evenly between June and September with just 31 per cent of tours taking place outside this peak holiday period.
Half of all coach tourists last year were 55 or older, while almost a fifth of visitors were 34 or less.