Adrian Cummins: Long road to recovery for tourism and hospitality, but we're up for the challenge

On July 5, subject to Government approval, Ireland's hospitality industry will have its Freedom Day

Sun, 20 Jun, 2021 - 15:07

Freedom is a word being used by many governments across the world as the vaccine rollout takes pace.

We can see from our neighbours in the UK; they call it Freedom Day. The French government used Pharrell Williams’ song 'Freedom' as part of their advertising campaign encouraging people in France to take up the vaccine. The advert, viewed over 6m times, shows clips of cinemas, restaurants, schools, workplaces, and a sports stadium to depict how our lives will start to get back to normality.

On July 5, subject to Government approval, Ireland's hospitality industry will have its Freedom Day.

Thousands of businesses across this country will have the opportunity to open fully indoors and welcome back their customers to pubs, restaurants, cafes, alongside hotels that opened in early June.

This will give a huge opportunity to thousands of workers who have had their lives turned upside down since March of 2020, a living nightmare, and it gives them an opportunity to restore some normality as we plot a path for stability and recovery of our economy and society.

Kickstart the reopening

Amazing work has been done by our doctors, nurses, paramedics, pharmacists, and HSE frontline workers in the rollout of the vaccine in Ireland, which has given us the opportunity to kickstart the reopening of hospitality.

Some may say this should have happened earlier and some will disagree. As the saying goes, we are where we are. We need to collectively work together to stabilise as many businesses as possible in hospitality.

We need to reboot our aviation industry and tourism sector. Our country desperately needs tourists to arrive and spend their money so that we have a viable industry, an industry that has the capability to maintain and sustain 250,000 jobs at a critical time for our economic recovery.

The Government needs to do a number of things to support hospitality and tourism businesses.

Number one, they need to set out a clear five-year recovery plan for the sector which includes the permanence of the 9% Vat rate until 2026.

We need the Government to provide employment wage supports until at least the summer of 2022 as our tourism industry starts to lift off.

We also need our local authorities to waive commercial rates to the end of 2021 and we need a debt write-off scheme for tourism and hospitality businesses. We did it for the banks, we did it for the builders, and now we need to do it for our tourism and hospitality industry.

The biggest issue facing tourism and hospitality businesses will be staff recruitment. Prior to Covid, we had a skills crisis in hospitality and tourism. That is now compounded. We are at a critical junction where some businesses will not be able to open for the summer on a full-time basis due to a shortage of staff.

Adrian Cummins: The Government needs to do a number of things to support hospitality and tourism businesses.

As tourism in Ireland developed, Cert, the Council for Education, Recruitment and Training, was established to provide education, recruitment, and training services for the tourism and hospitality industry. Subsequently, Cert’s role broadened to include the development of the wider business capabilities of Irish tourism businesses. Now, more than ever, we need a Cert.

Why PUP?

It's not a popular topic to talk about, but the pandemic unemployment payment (PUP) needs to be amended and removed for sectors as they fully open. Why are we paying PUP to people who worked in hairdressing, retail, and construction when those sectors are fully reopened?

Everybody is in full agreement with the position regarding industries or sectors that have not yet opened, specifically music, arts, entertainment, and nightlife — the PUP must be maintained for those people.

As Irish tourism and hospitality emerges from the ashes of Covid, we need to rebuild our mark on the world as a leading tourist destination. Our ministers and industry must pack their travel bags with brochures of Ireland and hit the capitals of Europe and North America with one message — Ireland is open for business.

We have a long road to recovery, but we are up for the challenge.