No cover-up of tourism figures, says Fáilte Ireland

FÁILTE IRELAND has rejected claims by Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary that it is covering up the collapse in Irish tourism by refusing to publish traffic figures for Irish airports.

Mr O’Leary claimed the State tourism agency would not publish its June traffic data as it was trying to cover up the Government’s embarrassment over the “fatal”damage being done by the new €10 tourist tax.

Mr O’Leary said Irish tourism was “in the toilet” as visitors switched to lower-cost, lower-tax destinations elsewhere in Europe.

A spokesman for Fáilte Ireland said the agency never published monthly traffic data. He said passenger movement statistics were provided to Fáilte Ireland on a confidential basis by carriers and airport management companies.

Fáilte Ireland circulated this information to the tourism industry on a confidential basis as it was “raw data”. The official figures were then published by the Central Statistics Office, he said.

He said Fáilte Ireland had been warning, as far back as January, that this year was going to be very challenging for tourism operators.

Mr O’Leary again called on the Government to axe the €10 tax before further damage was done to Irish tourism.

Meanwhile, the Irish Travel Agents Association (ITAA) said travel agents across Ireland were reporting “an unusual surge” in bookings this month because of the bad weather and cheap last-minute deals.

ITAA president Jim Vaughan said customers were “sick and tired of staring at rusting barbecues and soggy kids while they wait for the weather to clear up”.