Air Travel To Northern Ireland Likely To Become Increasingly Expensive

A recent research paper from the Department for the Economy says that air travel is likely to become increasingly expensive going to and from Northern Ireland. This should be no surprise to anyone really as rising energy costs and the impact of air travel on the environment will mean that air travel is going to come at an increased cost to travellers in the future.

This Is Going To Be A Big Blow To The Tourism Industry

However this factor is definitely going to be a blow to the tourism industry as air travel is the major way that overseas tourists enter our wonderful island. If the cost of getting a flight to Northern Ireland becomes unaffordable to many tourists it would prove a huge blow to this sector and our overall economy.

The research states, as copied from an article on the BBC News website, that:

“The dependency on air travel creates a high risk as carbon prices may continue to rise in the future, resulting in a reduction of airline demand.

“Northern Ireland will need to strike the balance between managing the risks associated with rising carbon prices and maintaining connectivity of airports between target tourist markets.”

Carbon Emissions Have To Be Reduced To Arrest Global Warming

We all realise that our carbon emissions have to be reduced as quickly and as effectively as possible, to ensure that global warming is arrested, or at least slowed down considerably, so there is really no getting away from the fact that air travel will have to be reduced across the globe as it is a major contributor to air pollution and rising temperatures.

Making air travel less harmful to the environment is a tricky one as it is not easy to use less polluting technologies to fuel flights, allied to the fact that governments across the world are loathe to make travelling by plane any more expensive than it already is.

The report also looks at the problem of over tourism. Here is what the same BBC News article says on this subject below:

‘The study also says that the industry needs to anticipate and limit the problem of “over tourism”, which is when the numbers and behaviour of tourists negatively impacts local communities.

‘This has been seen in cities like Amsterdam which recently ran a campaign discouraging visits from young British men.

‘The research points to the impact tourism is already having on housing stress along the north coast.

‘It suggests a pilot scheme for tougher regulations covering short stays rents and digital booking platforms in specific locations.’