Tourism coalition unveils revival plan

A PLAN for the tourism sector which would see the creation of 20,000 jobs by 2015 has been announced by a coalition of tourism interests.

The plan includes a campaign to promote Ireland abroad through high-profile personalities from the arts, sports and business worlds.

It proposes harnessing the diaspora to promote Ireland abroad, and recommends appointing 1,000 “goodwill fáilte ambassadors” around the world to boost visits to Ireland for holidays and to attract more business meetings and conferences.

It says Ireland must be relaunched as a tourism destination because of the collapse in overseas demand.

The plan is led by the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation and the Irish Hotels Federation, and also involves bodies such as the Irish Farmers’ Association, Ibec and Chambers Ireland.

The measures are published in Tourism Opportunity – Driving Economic Renewal, a report prepared by Tourism and Transport Consult International and Jim Power Economics.

The report presents three growth scenarios. The most modest is for an 18 per cent increase in overseas visitors by 2015 based on forecasts for intra-European travel. The report says this level of growth would be unacceptable as it would not restore the industry to a viable level.

The mid-growth scenario envisages a bounce in holiday demand which would increase overseas visitor numbers by 36 per cent over the same period.

The most optimistic scenario would see a 45 per cent increase in tourist numbers by 2015.

Hotels confederation chief executive Eamonn McKeon said the tourism sector had “taken a hammering” in recent times, and had lost one-third of its business over the past three years.

Some 5.6 million visitors came to Ireland last year, a 15 per cent drop on the previous year.

“We feel that we have reached the low point, and we feel that we will be looking at growth this year,” he said. “From here our focus is on getting back as close to the peak we were at in 2007 in the shortest timeframe possible.”

He said tourism could become a major engine of Irish economic growth if the 10-point plan in the report was implemented.

President of the Irish Hotels Federation Paul Gallagher agreed the plan was ambitious “but we must be bold, and we must set targets well beyond the consensus growth rates forecast for tourism within Europe over the coming years”. Its implementation would sustain 180,000 jobs and generate €6.2 billion in revenue for the economy.

Mr Gallagher said it was crucial the next government appointed a minister for tourism who would have a seat at the Cabinet “and not a junior minister”.

The plan says there is “an urgent need” to recover the British market and increase penetration of the top producing markets – the USA, Germany and France – by setting more ambitious targets.

It calls for a “root and branch reform” of the tourism agency structures, which includes bodies such as Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland, and recommends the introduction of a business loan guarantee scheme.

It also says an interdepartmental working group should be established to address the problem of hotel oversupply.

Mr Gallagher said the propping up of loss-making hotels by financial institutions was having a serious impact on viable hotels as they could not compete with the rock-bottom rates being offered.

Mr McKeon said an industry-led task force would be set up immediately to oversee the implementation of the plan.

Full details of the plan are available at tourismopportunity.ie