Other countries are pouring money into developing their established tourism industries, but Ireland is being left behind, argues David Andrews
By DAVID ANDREWS
TOURISM is now the most important sector in the Irish economy, giving direct and sustainable employment to over 107,000 people and generating £1.45 billion in revenue each year.
Current projections suggest that the numbers employed in tourism will rise to 120,000 and revenue will top £2 billion per annum by the end of the decade.
According to the 1996 Labour Force Survey, tourism already provides employment for more people than the food-manufacturing industry, building and construction, insurance, finance and business, services and the transportation, communications and storage sectors all put together.
In the light of these statistics it is difficult to understand how the present Government can stand over its neglect of tourism. It seems to be happy to let the tourism industry fend for itself and to rely almost exclusively on the European Regional Development Fund to support it.
This Government has effectively reduced expenditure on tourism development, and it is no thanks to the Minister for Tourism that the industry continues to prosper. This prosperity is due in the main to the energy and enthusiasm of those whose living depends on the tourist. In times when sustainable jobs are harder and harder to secure in Ireland, it is astonishing that the Government is not intensifying investment in tourism.
In many ways, tourism has prospered in Ireland in spite of, rather than as a consequence of, government participation, and it is dismal to reflect that the major contribution made by this Government to the future of tourism in Ireland is to preside over the change of the tourism logo.
Much can be done. RTE and The Irish Times should appoint tourism correspondents, as the industry ranks along with, if not ahead of, the traditional sectors of agriculture and manufacturing in terms of importance to the economy of this island.
Budget and youth tourism has been neglected, with no one given specific responsibility for that sector of a growing and important market.
It seems that it has only recently dawned on the Government - and it is no coincidence that the date for a general election looms - that major policy issues confront and threaten the tourism industry. The east-west imbalance, the faltering peace process and the tailoring of the tourism product to anticipate the needs of the tourist of the future are fundamental policy issues, vital to the development, if not the actual survival, of the tourism industry.
The time is long past when tourism can be left to its own devices. The industry does not enjoy the lobbying power of the farmers. If no customers turn up to a hotel in Ireland, the owner would hardly receive much attention or sympathy if he placed a picket on Leinster House and demanded to be compensated by the taxpayer. Such an approach seems quite normal, however, when certain other sectors of the economy are under threat.
Other countries, meanwhile, are pouring money into developing their established tourism industries, but Ireland is being left behind.
For example, a major conference centre has recently been constructed in Belfast. Major international conferences, generating millions of pounds in revenue, are taking place in Northern Ireland. Our Government has so mismanaged the business of building a national conference centre - that there is now little chance of Ireland being in a position to host any such conference in the present millennium.
As of today, the Government has been unable to decide even on a location for the national conference centre. An estimated sum of £30 million per annum is being lost and will continue to be lost for every year that this centre remains unbuilt.
The greatest challenge facing tourism is what will happen when the present tranche of EU funding comes to an end in 1999. In this context, a heavy onus lies on the media to highlight the problems facing the industry and stimulate debate about the approaches which should be taken post 1999. The media have an important role to play in ensuring that the tourism sector receives proper coverage in terms of information and debate as to the future management of Ireland's natural tourism resources.
I have come to the view that the tourism industry is so important that a separate Department of Tourism, with a Minister as its head, is necessary. The Minister should be free to work with Bord Failte and the tourism industry, and all its manifold components, to ensure that tourism is supported in an appropriate manner by government.
The manner in which the industry is managed and monitored must be changed, and changed radically, if this is what the industry needs in order to become and remain competitive.
David Andrews TD is Fianna Fall spokesman on tourism and trade.