A BUSINESS lobby group has endorsed the warning by Ryan Hotels chairman, Mr Conor McCarthy, that Ireland must not be sold for under priced as a tourist destination.
The Chambers of Commerce of Ireland (CCI) said last night that if priority is not given to the higher spending, quality focused visitor now, "we will see the whole sector stagnate or decline within a few years."
On Thursday, Mr McCarthy criticised the increasingly popular stag weekends, which have seen hundreds of British visitors coming to Ireland for noisy pre marriage celebrations.
Mr McCarthy said Ireland could do without such tourism and it must be rejected.
He said these visitors could have a detrimental effect on tourism. If ordinary tourists thought Ireland was all about "high jinks and getting drunk" this could kill the market as the benefit of the "experience" of Ireland would be lost.
Last night, CCI president Mr Tony Prendergast backed Mr McCarthy, saying Ireland is a quality tourism product. "Our environment, our skilled workforce and our tourism products come with a price tag and the emphasis must be kept on attracting high spending visitors who will appreciate and pay for that quality," he said.
Mr Prendergast said Ireland must present a premium product to continue attracting premium visitors. The higher spending tourist pays among other things for space and privacy, he said.
"Cheap deals which put bums on airline seats and fill our pubs certainly inject welcome cash into the economy," he said. "However, they must not be the focus of our marketing or planning effort."
Mr Prendergast was referring to the stag weekends which have seen Dublin grow in popularity with British visitors over the past few years. Some pubs in Dublin city centre refuse to serve them. (Other popular destinations include Cork and Galway).
A Bord Failte spokesman said yesterday that the agency had never received a complaint about stag weekends, although it receives about 2,500 complaints each year.
He said Bord Failte does not promote stag weekends.
Around 2.2 million of the 4.2 million visitors to Ireland last year were from Britain About 2.1 million of all visitors to Ireland visit Dublin.
