Call for tourism body in the Cabinet

Tourism stakeholders will have to look at the bigger national picture, rather than purely local interests, if the industry’s potential is to be realised, a conference heard yesterday.

Raymond Kearney, a tourism and management lecturer at the Institute of Technology Tallaght, in Dublin, also said there was no evidence of the vision that would realise the aim of making Ireland the “best small country in the world to do tourism”.

He disagreed with the current messages from the industry — which tell of growth in visitor numbers — that “everything is fine”.