FG claims travel tax at heart of tourism decline

FINE GAEL has claimed the €151.7 million generated by the Government’s controversial €10 travel tax over the last 18 months is far too little to justify the damage it is causing to the tourism sector.

While tourism experts such as Tourism Ireland chief executive Niall Gibbons have blamed the downturn on visitor numbers on the recession, Deirdre Clune, Fine Gael’s frontbench spokesman on Research and Innovation, said the travel tax introduced last March was “at the heart of the decline”.

She said the most recent tourist figures show Ireland is losing close to 4,000 visitors each day, with a quarter fewer tourists in April 2010 compared to 2009.