There will be a great welcome in the tourist industry for the easing of restrictions on entry to many of the State's most popular attractions, announced yesterday by the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh. It never made much sense to ban access to places like Dublin Castle or Kilkenny Castle. It is sensible of Mr Walsh to recognise that the tourist industry needs the fullest possible range of its products to offer foreign visitors, now at the critical point of deciding where their summer holiday will be.
It is not long ago that the prospects for the tourist industry looked far different. Last month, the Irish Hotels' Federation produced a report at its annual conference in Kilkenny. The report, Blueprint for the Future, identified many challenges facing the industry, including customers' expectations of ever superior service, employees seeking empowerment and greater rewards and investors looking for high returns.
Just a week after the Kilkenny conference, the first outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease was confirmed in Britain. Shortly afterwards, a case was confirmed in Northern Ireland. Suddenly, the concerns of hoteliers - and the entire tourism industry - have been forcibly switched to the issue of sheer survival. Foot-andmouth is undeniably a grave problem for Irish food producers and exporters but it has manifested a crisis for the tourist industry.
Bord Failte estimates that the industry will shrink by 15-20 per cent this year, even if no actual case of foot-and-mouth is found in the Republic. That translates into a loss in overseas earnings of £500 million and puts at risk up to 30,000 jobs. The damage will be felt most keenly in rural areas whose natural beauty makes them the lure of foreign visitors and whose remoteness generally makes them unsuitable to conventional manufacturing industry.
The chief executive of Bord Failte, Mr John Dully, has pointed out that tourism has a significant influence on distributing economic benefits to regions which lack other resources. It contributes to the fabric of rural life by improving community development, fostering local enterprise and keeping people - especially young people - employed close to home.
Total investment in the tourist industry in the period 1989-1999 is estimated at £3.6 billion. One coach tour operator described last week how he invested £1 million in a new fleet this year, believing that a thriving business would start in early March. An adventure centre in Co Louth warned that it may have to close because the Department of Agriculture is discouraging people from land-based recreation activities.
Nobody in the industry disputes the need to offer every protection to the agricultural sector. It is notable that tourism interests have supported wholeheartedly the efforts to keep foot-and-mouth out of the State despite the instant damage caused by the cancellation of events. This support continues. It should be rewarded by Mr Walsh continuing to review what can safely be put on offer to our visitors.