The Irish Tourism Industry Confederation (ITIC) wants Government responsibility for the domestic tourism industry to change homes and come under the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment; rather than its current home alongside Culture, Arts, Sport, the Gaeltacht and Media.
Writing in the Irish Examiner, yesterday, ITIC chief executive Eoghan O’Mara Walsh stressed: “A long overdue national policy on tourism is due this year, and it must match industry’s responsible ambition for the sector.”
ITIC wants more help – from the Government – for the country’s largest indigenous sector and biggest employer.
That includes the old chestnut of returning the VAT rate for tourism and hospitality businesses to 9%; following its return to 13.5% last year.
In his Irish Examiner column, Mr O’Mara Walsh admitted the VAT call may be irritating to the Government, but stressed the move to hike hospitality VAT in last October’s Budget was “the wrong decision.”
“On top of escalating energy, insurance and wage increases, it added another cost of business burden that the sector did not need,” he wrote.
“Business supports from the Government, announced in the last Budget, do not go far enough and are certainly inadequate for the tourism and hospitality sector – of which, according to the CSO – there are 40,000 businesses most of whom are SMEs based in regional parts of the country.”
In his Irish Examiner column, Mr O’Mara Walsh also stressed the need to remove capacity constraints at Dublin Airport.
He wrote: “Undoubtedly, we must maximise the under-utilisation of Cork and Shannon airports; but Dublin – as the main gateway to the island, as well as a strategic hub between North America and Europe – must be allowed to expand.”
“With 75% of the tourism economy made up of international visitation, the cap on passengers at Dublin Airport will, by definition, stymie growth. Airlines are likely to lose patience and go elsewhere,” he warned.
