Travel/Tourism for ireland = Profitable?

pixeldesign

Hi guys!Im thinking to open up a website about traveling/tourism for Ireland.Is this niche profitable for this country?Does anyone have a website about this niche?

mneylon

It can be very profitable.. depends on what / how you do it obviously

goldenga

I'm interested in hearing what you want to do with it - have been working on something myself, niche market, but great potential - who are you aiming at? Would love to hear your thoughts on it...

cormee

I wouldn't have thought tourism was a 'niche' at all - it's a massive industry and seems very well catered for on the Internet already. You'd have a massive battle ahead of you if you were considering an attempt to take a market share from any of the big portals. Best to focus on a niche within tourism - say fishing, bike tours, golf or a subject that interests you.

barrackali

The tourism market is overpopulated in Ireland, my business has been online since 2001, in the beginning we made a killing but margins/commissions have dropped substantially over the last few years.

I expect them to drop further shortly with NAMA about to wind up many hotel chains throughout Ireland.

pixeldesign

I just want to make a website where people can find hotels, flight tickets, events, news, articles and any useful info for tourists and other people.I thought that if i`ll have good traffic, then companies working on tourism industry would pay some good money for advertising.I dont worry about the market being overpopulated...because i have good SEO skills.Also if anyone is interested to work with me for such a project please pm me.

barrackali

With over 10 years of experience in the Irish/Eu travel biz I think I need to comment on this again. Every niche has been done to bits in Ireland, SEO skills can only get you do far. BTW advertising rates are rock bottom in the current climate.

Sorry to be so negative..

cormee

pixeldesign wrote: »

I just want to make a website where people can find hotels, flight tickets, events, news, articles and any useful info for tourists and other people.I thought that if i`ll have good traffic, then companies working on tourism industry would pay some good money for advertising.I dont worry about the market being overpopulated...because i have good SEO skills.Also if anyone is interested to work with me for such a project please pm me.

Like www.tourismireland.com, www.discoverireland.com, www.discoverireland.ie, www.tourismirelandinfo.com, www.irishtourist.com, www.travelinireland.com, www.travelireland.org, www.discoverireland.net, www.goireland.com? - the list is almost endless. You're wasting your time, the market is already saturated.

barrackali

Op you would be better off looking in a different direction...we are no longer developing projects in Ireland and have decided to concentrate on virtually anywhere else. With the travel industry the way it is, it would be very hard to make any worthwhile revenue.

pixeldesign

Thanks for your replies guys!I just wanted to know if this niche is profitable...i dont care how many websites are already on this niche...There is always a place for everybody.If these sites are already on internet it doesnt mean i cant have success.If you just think about this, then all niches are saturated...

pixeldesign

Anybody is selling his site/blog/forum about travel/tourism ?I dont need huge sites.Max budget 200 euro.

fintan

barrackali wrote: »

Every niche has been done to bits in Ireland

Do you mean every "Travel Niche" or "Every Niche" as if its every niche, I would have to strongly disagree.

Cheers
Fintan

barrackali

No that would be every travel niche I was referring to.

NathanKingerlee

Without being too negative; coming at it from the tourist trade point of view; there's far too many sites out there at the moment, over-promising and under-delivering. Your idea is great in theory, but even the www.discoverireland.ie site has a ways to go and needs to perform better and this is the national site, with serious funding being injected into it. While it may work to some extent, I can't see it becoming a serious revenue, especially considering the amount of work you'd have to invest into it.
Check this site out though, a little different but seems to be working well in the US: http://www.irishcentral.com/

yeahme

Nathan, the guy behind Irish central, was/is involved in Irish newspapers in Usa, so from that point he has had a HUGE helping hand, and also he got the mailing lists from every single Irish association in usa from NY to San diego, from which he was able to pick up subscribers.
(I dont know if thats technically legal re: associations giving him my address, but it worked for him, and I see no wrong in it as its interesting to me, even though I did not give my consent to receiving emails from the start of the website)
but on a side note he is a great campaigner for Irish rights in the usa and works tirelessly to get irish interests involved in all aspects of usa life, (political or otherwise)