Tourism industry urges all 2020 candidates to commit to action to support jobs growth

The Irish Hotels Federation has urged all candidates in tomorrow’s election to commit to decisive action in support of the continued growth of Irish tourism.

While tourism had returned to growth in recent years, the recovery has not been evenly spread across the country.

The CSO’s overseas visitor numbers for 2019 revealed a significant fall-off in growth with an increase of just 1.8%, as against 6.9% in 2018.

Michael Lennon, IHF president, said tourism has been one of the great success stories of the economy in recent years, supporting over 260,000 jobs and generating €2bn in taxes for the exchequer each year.

“However, our industry now faces heightened uncertainty and remains vulnerable to external shocks, given our exposure to the economic environment of our major sourced markets, as Brexit clearly demonstrated,” he said.

“Decisive action is needed now to ensure our industry lives up to its full potential as a major engine for growth and job creation across the entire country over the next five years.”

The IHF’s five-point plan calls on the next government to support tourism by addressing a number of key challenges, including: tackling the high cost of doing business; more supports for regional tourism; increased tourism marketing support; additional investment in tourism product and infrastructure; and investment in people, skills and training.

As one of Ireland’s largest indigenous industries, tourism plays a key role in the country’s economic well-being and spreading employment opportunities and prosperity across the entire country.

“With 70% of tourism jobs based outside of Dublin, the industry’s wide geographic distribution is critical to sustaining regional economies, and addressing the rural imbalance."

“Irish tourism has created over 90,000 new jobs since 2011, accounts for almost 4% of GNP and generates over €9.4m in taxes each year — thereby supporting the local economies of every village, town and county.”

Mr. Lennon highlights the high cost of doing business in Ireland, particularly around insurance and government-controlled costs such as local authority rates, water and energy levies.

Greater supports for regional tourism to counter the impact of Brexit are needed, in tandem with significant additional investment to support marketing and product development.

“Tourism represents an excellent investment for the country and it is therefore vital that it remains at the heart of Ireland’s economic policy. We’re calling on candidates in the general election to commit to a range of pro-tourism policies that will help to sustain the growth of tourism and the significant contribution that it makes to the economy,” he added.

Tackling the high cost of doing business is listed top of the IHF plan. The international tourism market is exceptionally competitive and every tourism euro spent in Ireland is hard won. As such, the high cost of doing business in Ireland remains one of the most pressing issues faced by tourism businesses such as hotels.

A focused approach on cost competitiveness is required, including: restoration of the 9% tourism Vat rate; greater urgency on insurance reform and establishment of a Garda Insurance Fraud Unit; shake-up of local government funding to achieve a fairer distribution of rates burden; defer the CRU’s decision for a hike in Irish Water’s cost allocation to businesses.

Every euro spent in overseas tourism marketing by the State generates up to €130 in overseas’ visitor expenditure. However, the funding allocation for tourism marketing and product development has been cut back substantially since the downturn.

Hotels are among the largest employers in the tourism sector, supporting over 60,000 jobs and investing up to 40% of turnover in payroll each year.

These jobs are of enormous importance to many areas of the country that have an otherwise weak economic base. In addition to job openings for experienced employees, hospitality and tourism businesses around the country recruit over 6,000 entry-level employees annually across all areas of their operations.

The Irish Hotels Federation has urged all candidates in tomorrow’s election to commit to decisive action in support of the continued growth of Irish tourism. While tourism had returned to growth in recent years, the recovery has not been evenly spread across the country.