Hotelier: 5,000 jobs in tourism are at risk
Michael Vaughan, chairman of the Shannon region branch of the Irish Hotels Federation, also said that 15,000 of the current stock of 60,000 rooms will go.
However, he said if the industry recovers to 2008 levels, the shutdown of rooms could be reduced to 7,500.
Mr Vaughan also claimed marketing in the sector was being hampered by what he termed as a “confusion” of government quangos with responsibilities in the sector.
Speaking at a tourism forum in Limerick, he said the industry was hampered by too many rooms, not enough cash flow and too many state-backed promotion agencies. He said hotels were being run at a loss and being kept open by the banks and NAMA.
“If they (banks and NAMA) let them close, they feel there won’t be any asset value left in them.”
He said if the downward trend persists this year for just under 1,000 registered hotels in the country, up to 15,000 rooms will go with the loss of 5,000 jobs.
He called for the amalgamation of Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland. “In this region, we have Shannon Development, we have Fáilte Ireland, we have Tourism Ireland and a plethora of tourism groups with no overall arching policy,” he said. “Very few people on the ground can understand the difference between Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland. We need one national tourism body that will promote and do the business for tourism interests and end this confusion.”
He said a colleague in north Tipperary had tried to get work done within their branch of the hotels federation and “ended up with nine different agencies to deal with a small problem”.
“We need one national tourism body that will promote and effectively do the business for tourism interests and end this confusion.
“For instance the promotion of golf internationally is handled by Fáilte Ireland. Yet Tourism Ireland is supposed to handle the overall international promotion. So how does that exist? Tourism is suffering very badly, because anywhere you have confusion you will have mass delusion and that is what we have at the moment. People in the industry have no confidence in the tourism structures we have in the country at the moment and we need to have that back.”
He said the Mid-West Shannon tourism regime should be brought inside Fáilte Ireland.
“Shannon Development should hand over the tourism remit to Fáilte Ireland, it is time for this change. We have been outside the loop for many, many years. We are suffering so badly; there is no money being spent by Shannon Development in this region on tourism this year, very little, about a third less than they used. Fáilte Ireland are willing and able to take up the cudgels.
“This huge duplication in the region of resources between Shannon Development and Fáilte Ireland has to end and we hope the new government will see sense and make this happen for us.” The quango tourism family needs to be dissolved and this matter should be on the Government’s promised quango hit list, he added.
