Tourism, the Irish State, and Developmental Failures

Abstract

The early decades of Irish tourism’s development can be characterised as a missed opportunity for expansion. A dearth of policy coupled with structural difficulties endured from the 1920s until the mid-1980s and successive governments were reluctant to address the issue of investing in tourism. This neglect occurred despite evidence of a clear capacity for growth in the industry. During the war years, as Zuelow notes ‘With few jobs, high emigration… to say nothing of the fact that for much of the war tourists could not get to Ireland owing to grounded flights and dangerous seas, tourism was… a low priority’ (2009: 35). The early 1940s even saw some debate as to whether or not tourism development should be suspended.¹ However, a post-World War II influx of visitors from Britain created a minor tourism ‘boom’ and net receipts increased between 1942 and 1948 from IR £2 million to IR £33 million (Irish Statistical Bulletin, 1960). Nonetheless, this growth was not sustained because it was limited by inadequate infrastructure and substandard accommodation, despite the availability of Marshall funding in 1948 for investment in tourism (Stationery Office, 1951: 11).² The late 1950s and 1960s saw some improvements in structures and investment in the tourism sector. Receipts reached IR £42.4 million in 1960 and IR £49.5 million in 1963 (Bord Fáilte, 1961, 1964).