Hoteliers call for decisive TD action
WEXFORD hoteliers have called on the incoming Government to take decisive action to support the tourism sector.
In the days before last weekend’s history-making General Election the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) published a tourism policy in which is outlined the significance of the industry to the Irish economy.
The document highlighted that the tourism supports over 260,000 jobs and contributes €2bn to the economy each year.
The IHF also says that
90,000 new tourism jobs have been created within the sector since 2011.
Hotel and guesthouse owners across County Wexford supported the IHF in its call for the incoming Wexford based TDs to commit to decisive action to ensure continued growth of Irish tourism.
Enniscorthy hotelier and businessman, Colm Neville, who is Chairperson of the
IHF’s, south east branch, said that while tourism had returned to growth in recent years the recovery has not been evenly spread across the country.
‘Our industry now faces heightened uncertainty and remains vulnerable to external shocks, given our exposure to the economic environment of our major source markets, as Brexit clearly demonstrated,’ said Mr Neville
His warning came in the wake of CSO figures being released which revealed a significant fall off in growth as the increase for 2019 was 1.8 per cent compared to 6.9 per cent the previous year.
The IHF’s policy document, ‘A Strategy for Job Creation and Economic Growth’, highlighted that tourism has been one of the great success stories of the economy in recent years.