An east Galway senator has warned the tourism industry is “dying on its feet” and insists urgent action is necessary to breathe life back into it.
Fine Gael politician Senator Ciaran Cannon is advocating that €10 million of the €155 million tourism budget should be set aside to buy 100,000 “free” airline seats into Ireland. This would “kick-start” the sector.
“New and creative thinking is needed if the tourism sector, which is on its knees, is to be reinvigorated. The tourism sector is dying on its feet following a €1 billion drop in revenue since 2007. We now have 75,000 fewer seats per week on flights into Ireland. We have so much to offer and there is no reason why, with a bit of innovative thinking, we cannot have visitors flocking to Ireland in 2011.
“The budget for tourism promotion each year is €155 million of taxpayers’ money,” reveals Senator Cannon. “What better way to kick-start the tourist season for 2011 than by taking €10 million of that budget, having an auction across all the airlines serving this country, and buying 100,000 free seats into Ireland to get people to our shores.”
Tourists visiting here spend an average of about €600. That money, spent on airline seats, could be reclaimed through VAT intake alone, he says.
“We need to offer a genuine céad míle fáilte to all our neighbours in the EU and let them know that Ireland is open for business. We need to be the land of a genuine 100,000 welcomes - a reputation we have always had and one which we should continue to promote.
“We then need to call Michael O’Leary’s and Christoph Mueller’s bluff on their claim that the air travel tax is an impediment to growth in the tourism sector. Let us set aside the tax for two years and challenge them to produce the number of tourists they claim they can bring to this country on their planes every year.”
The FG senator is critical of the Government response to what he terms the “tourism crisis”.
“Their only response so far has been to set up taskforce after taskforce. What’s more, when the Tourism Renewal Group was established the Government chose to ignore the group’s advice to remove the travel tax immediately. We now have the ludicrous situation whereby the Renewal Implementation Group is in place to implement the recommendations of the Tourism Renewal Group, which the Government is ignoring anyway. Meanwhile, tourist numbers are dropping on a daily basis.
“There has never been better value or quality available to tourists in Ireland than there is today. Rather than placing impediments in the way of people who might visit us we should instead introduce incentives to attract them to Ireland. These proposals have been welcomed by both sides of the House in the Seanad. It’s time for some creative thinking from Government to help the tourism sector up off its knees.”
