Tourism legend calls for action over costs

A LEGEND of Ireland’s tourist industry has called on the Government to move quickly to tackle rising costs which are crippling the sector.

Dermot Cronin, 80, the founder of Cork-based Cronin’s Coaches and who is retiring next month after 55 years at the helm, said our tourism industry is recovering, but rising fuel and insurance costs are preventing over 1,000 businesses such as his from growing.

The lack of credit from the banks is also a major concern, Mr Cronin said.

“Our business is up 23% in the first quarter of this year but with little profit. Rising costs are eating into our profits,” he said.

Fuel alone currently accounts for almost 30% of the business’s running costs — up from 45c to 50c per kilometre in the last few months.

Insurance hikes added another €20,000 to the firm’s running costs last year.

Mr Cronin said for a company like his which has to invest up to €300,000 buying a single luxury five-star touring coach — and which has invested just over €1 million in new vehicles in recent months — such rising costs are unsustainable.

“This is the worst recession I’ve seen, but it comes in cycles. It goes down fast but takes a lot longer for business to come back, but the business is still there,” he said.

“The Government must put its shoulder to the wheel and take action fast.”

He said as well as tackling costs and freeing up credit, the Government should also tackle these three key areas:

na VAT rebate on fuel costs for tourist operators, which was abolished in 2007, should be reintroduced;

nprivate bus operators should be allowed use specialised registration plates, which do not display the year a bus or coach was registered;

nand the visa requirements to make it easier for Asian, and especially Chinese tourists, to visit Ireland should be streamlined.

Mr Cronin, who is originally from Farnanes in Co Cork, started the business with his late wife, Joan, in 1957 driving taxis and providing bus hire.

He operated a factory-run for workers at the Farmer’s Union from Cork city to its abattoir in Ballincollig.

He took over Canny’s bus company on Anglesea Street, doubling his fleet from four to eight buses and then moved into transporting tourists in the early 1970s.

Fuelled by the increase in transatlantic flights, the explosion of the north American tourist market, and cruise ship tourism, the company expanded.

Mr Cronin blazed a trail in the industry, helping to set up PAMBO, the Private Association of Motor Bus Owners, and was one of the first in Ireland to put air-conditioned buses, and buses with toilets, on the roads.

Today, the Cork-based company has a fleet of over 50 vehicles, and employs up to 100 people at peak tourist times.

It has offices in Dublin and New York, a specialised travel services company, a motor sales company, and a hotel marketing group promoting the 25 Select Hotels of Ireland.

It is 90% dependent on tourism.

Some of the leading figures in the Irish tourism industry paid tribute to Mr Cronin at a special retirement function at the Vertigo restaurant atop Cork’s County Hall last week.

Hotelier and host of RTE’s At Your Service, John Brennan, paid tribute to Mr Cronin’s immense contribution to the industry.

“Dermot has been one of the most progressive and adaptable entrepreneurs this industry has ever seen — a man with great integrity, loyalty and an ethos of hard work and quality, a man very much ahead of his time,” he said.