Hoteliers: Budget must save 100,000 jobs at risk this winter

Elaina Fitzgerald Kane sid October's budgetmust focus on delivering aid to insulate jobs in Irish tourism. Picture: Sam Boal 

A further 100,000 tourism jobs will be lost this winter without more Government support, hoteliers have warned, as bookings "plummet" amid the new local restrictions in Dublin and Donegal.

Industry group, the Irish Hotels Federation said the new restrictions from the middle of September has led to a 67% slide in new bookings. 

October's budget must focus on delivering new aid to insulate jobs in Irish tourism "at a time when the sector is struggling under immense financial difficulties", said IHF president Elaina Fitzgerald Kane. 

"It is now 'make or break' time. Urgent and unprecedented intervention from the Government is required to support tourism businesses and safeguard thousands of jobs throughout the sector," she said. 

The industry group said that 100,000 tourism jobs have so far been lost amid the Covid-19 crisis and a further 100,000 jobs are "at immediate risk", with occupancy rates of only 23% in October and 12% in November. 

It seeks "sector-specific" help, including a Vat rate cut for the industry and higher levels of payment and an extension of the new wage-support scheme to help the industry retain jobs during "the difficult winter-spring months ahead".

Meanwhile, businesses are increasingly worried about telecoms facilities as remote working from home extends into the winter months, according to Bank of Ireland. 

Its latest economic pulse survey has recovered 60% of the losses the index suffered during the worst of the Covid-19 crisis as business sentiment improved, the bank said. 

Households who anticipated house prices to rise in the coming year was greater than the number who anticipated that house prices would fall.     

However, fears over a hard Brexit have returned to haunt businesses and consumers, and "the underlying picture was mixed". 

"For firms, it was a case of moving on from last month’s reopening setbacks and getting back to business, whereas consumers remained cautious in the face of the resurgence in the virus," said the bank's group chief economist Loretta O’Sullivan.