Christina Murphy looks at the impact of St. Patrick’s Day on the Irish economy.
For most of us, St. Patrick’s Day festivities start and end on the 17th of March every year. But for the tourism industry, they begin at the very start and last throughout the entirety of the month! Every year Ireland rakes in millions of euros during St. Patrick’s Day Weekend, boosting the Irish economy like Christmas in spring.
Last year, Tourism Ireland reported that over 100,00 visitors came from overseas to the tiny island to see what all the fuss was about. Before this, they hosted an international broadcast sharing all the reasons to come to Ireland in March, which attracted over 200 million viewers. This year has been estimated to gain similar, if not an increase in, numbers.
Due to this, an estimated €122 million is supposed to return to the Irish economy thanks to the Dublin festival, with €28 million to the exchequer, according to predictions from last year made by CEO Richard Tierney. The split for these economic figures is €110 million impact from the St Patrick’s Festival in Dublin alone, and €19 million from the other regional locations. These include counties like Galway, Cork and Limerick which offer vibrant parades celebrating Irish culture and heritage.
While the Dublin festival will be the major catalyst for tourism, this will also provide the Irish government with an opportunity to use this period to boost international trade and investment. As St. Patrick's Day has become a world wide phenomena, reaching places like Chicago and Australia, there is no better time to promote what Ireland can offer trade wise.
As well as this, the festivities in central Dublin will create thousands of temporary jobs. There will be an extreme increase in popularity of some of Dublin's best known food and drink places, such the Temple Bar area and City Centre, meaning that the businesses will be looking for more hands on deck!
One of the biggest areas of revenue will undoubtedly be from the pubs around Ireland. Tourists who flock to the country to experience Irish pub crawling and to try out drinks such as Guinness often meet their peak around St. Patrick’s Day, converging around areas such as Drury Street. It has also become a tradition amongst students to flock to these places and engage in some intense alcohol consumption all in honour of being in Ireland on its best day of the year.
Especially in light of the recount controversy in Temple Bar, where the Temple Bar Pub erected a statue of St. Patrick holding a pint of Guinness in one hand. The pint was quickly covered up by a black bag under the reasoning that perhaps the patron saint of Ireland shouldn’t be promoting drinking. The statue was shortly taken down after too, but it definitely left an impression on a lot of local Dubliners, many who disagreed with this commercialization of the religious figure.
Most of the economic boom will be thanks to the American tourists who make the pilgrimage to Ireland each year. Last year Richard Tierney came out and said "The average American stays 8.4 days and will spend €2,142 while here. This compares to a UK visitor who’ll stay 5.2 days and spend €631."
St. Patrick's Day will also generate income for local Irish businesses, with increasing sales in retail stores and hotels. Popular places for Irish sourced goods will include Irish Food and Craft Village in Dublin, Cork’s Harley StrEAT food market, and St. Patrick’s Park Market in Dublin. This will all have a significant impact in maintaining jobs and business in local areas.
However, as fun as all the celebrations will be, there are also the negative impacts of such a large influx of tourists and visitors in concentrated places around the country. The day after St. Paddy’s Day, cleaners will take to the streets of Dublin as early as five in the morning to begin the clean-up. The cleaning will require Dublin crew handling up to 20 tonnes of waste and will involve hundreds of workers and road sweepers. This will be targeting areas like Temple Bar and Drury Street to clean up left over glass, plastic, and food waste.
It is important that we celebrate Ireland and its cultural heritage, it's also essential that everyone does their part in keeping the streets clean and understanding the cultural history of this holiday!