Car rental companies in trouble as tourist numbers plummet
"Red Alert" for car rental companies
Car rental companies are in real trouble due to the lack of tourists coming to the country because of coronavirus.
As we are all very aware, there has been a massive collapse of the tourism industry, not only here in Ireland, but internationally. As a result, thousands of brand new cars are available from rental companies with no holidaymakers to drive them.
Hertz are calling the present situation a ‘crisis’ and are now seeking to sell off more than 1,000 new cars just to balance its books. Hertz latest radio advert has the message:
“Red Alert! This is an urgent message from Hertz car sales: There are little or no tourists in Ireland. No tourists means no car rentals. At Hertz car sales we have 1,000 excess cars from €39 per week that urgently need to be sold. This is a Hertz crisis car sale. We’re on standby now to take your enquiry.”
Due to Covid-19, there were 10 million fewer passengers arriving into Irish airports during the Spring. Passenger numbers fell by more than 67,500 compared to the same time last year in April, May and June.
This drop has had an effect on the rental car industry and a knock-on effect to the motor trade who had expected to sell between 17,000 and 18,000 cars to the rental sector. The figure was closer to 4,000 or 5,000, according to the Society of the Irish Motor Industry. Brian Cooke of SIMI said:
“So you can see it’s probably down 70% to 80%. The tourists just aren’t there. Because new car sales are so low this year that means the number of second-hand cars traded is actually down as well.
“So that’s one reason why second-hands have held their value quite well this year because – I wouldn’t go as far to say there’s been a shortage just yet – but certainly second-hand cars have held their value because there hasn’t been as much second hand sales activity with new car trade-ins this year.
“So anyone looking to trade-up to a newer car or a new car will find a lot of good value in their secondhand car.”
In April, Knock airport completely closed down and for the rest of Ireland there was an unprecedented drop in passenger numbers arriving in Ireland by a shocking 99.2% to just 25,286. That is down from 3,232,744, with Shannon airport having just 120 passengers in three months according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Author
Justin Kavanagh
Justin Kavanagh is a recognised leader
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