Eoghan O’Mara Walsh: Travel chaos highlights the failure of a proper testing regime

Tourism is Ireland's largest industry and it is still reeling

Maurice Pratt, chairman Irish Tourism Industry Confederation Council and Eoghan O'Mara Walsh, chief executive Irish Tourism Industry Confederation. Picture: Jim Coughlan

This Christmas for the Irish tourist industry, we should perhaps be belting out the anthem Things Can Only Get Better: it’s difficult to grasp the carnage across a key industry, all through no fault of its own.

After the crisis, an industry that was worth €9.2bn has taken a huge hit to its revenues, with at least 150,000 people working in the industry now unemployed and facing a fraught future.