By prosecuting and wrapping Airbnb hosts in red tape, councils are seriously harming NI tourism

TOURISM NI is using an obsolete piece of legislation to go after the new engine of tourism growth — online letting platforms like Airbnb.

The government agency has announced it is planning to prosecute Airbnb hosts in Belfast and Cookstown, using a 25-yearold law drafted before the arrival of the e-commerce age.

The law requires hosts to apply for a government-issued licence and register for a government-sanctioned inspection regime. We are the only part of the UK to do this.

Anyone who knows even the slightest thing about these platforms knows the customer review and rating system has totally changed the home letting sector. It has driven standards up and costs down.

Why do we need government bureaucrats to try and replicate a system that already works?

The legislation also mandates other embarrassing outdated requirements like a physical book containing names, addresses and nationality of guests.

As a traveller, I don’t want any hosts recording my information when they don’t need it.

I’m no lawyer, but I’m pretty sure this piece of the legislation is non-compliant with privacy protections built into the GDPR that went live in May 2018, which requires companies to explain exactly what the information will be used for and how long it will be kept.

Airbnb and other platform hosts are the new ambassadors of the tourism sector, meeting and greeting thousands of international visitors. They should be lauded and supported, not hounded by bureaucrats and prosecutors.

We need the Assembly back to repeal this obsolete law and let the tourism industry flourish without the anti-tourist policies of Tourism NI.