ABSTRACT
This chapter documents developmental outcome of the Irish tourism push through providing a detailed summary of industrial trajectories in the accommodation and airline sectors. It argues that Ireland has been successful in industrial upgrading within both subindustries, but more so in air transport than in accommodation. The chapter analyzes accommodation and transport because they tend to make up the greatest proportion of expenditure by tourists. Accommodation lies at the heart of tourism. Cooper among others argues that globally accommodation constitutes by far the greatest share of overall tourism expenditure. The accommodation and air transport sectors each look very different than they did in the mid-1980s prior to the tourism push, and in each sector Irish firms have been successful in industrial upgrading. Transport is the lifeblood of international tourism, and for an island nation such as Ireland is particularly problematic.
