Sir, - I want to congratulate you on the excellent editorial (December 29th) in which you refer to confirmation that 1995 was indeed a record breaking year for the tourist sector. The signs are also good for 1996, with an expectation of a further nine per cent increase in foreign exchange and an escalation in tourist numbers to 4.60 million. This augurs well for the future, and for job creation, as tourism will shortly take over from the agricultural sector as the single most important source of employment in Ireland.
As you also say, investment in tourism has the great advantage in that jobs created are more soundly based, since the promoter must make his venture work where it is located. As opposed to this, other industries can heave an Irish base whenever cheaper cost production locations become available, and there is an ever increasing number of such competitive locations around the world.
This stated, the benefits arising from Ireland's success in tourism are not at all evenly spread throughout the country. In particular, the regions are not enjoying their proportional share of the national tourism pot, because they do not possess "competitive and adequate access transport to Ireland" Dublin and the entire East Coast are fortunate to have the benefit of frequent and cheap access, both air and sea. Therefore, regional tourism continues: to be detrimentally inhibited and as a consequence, cannot achieve the same critical mass as experienced by the Dublin region.
The answer to the problem of tourism imbalance lies in opening up traffic into the regional airports, which are being allowed to turn into white elephants, because of the lack of both internal and external flight access. As a result, regional hotel operators are at a distinct disadvantage - they cannot ever hope to attract the short stay visitor without the availability of competitive and adequate access to regions.
Even the employment of the best marketing skills cannot redress this fundamental problem. How can one tap into the market properly, when the regional tourism product is rendered so inaccessible, particularly to the ever increasing short stay visitor market, which is being mapped up by the Dublin region?
My warmest congratulations again on your excellent editorial. - Yours, etc.,
Glenlo Abbey Hotel,
Bushypark,
Galway.