FALLOUT FROM BREXIT ON KILLARNEY AGENDA

THE fallout from Brexit and its impact on tourism will form the bases for discussions at the National Tourism Forum at the Muckross Park Hotel, Killarney, which gets underway this Friday, 25th November. Britain’s decision to leave the EU has caused widespread concern and tourist business owners from all over Ireland will meet in Killarney to discuss the challenges facing the sector.

Britain is a leading player in Irish tourism accounting for approximately 4 in 10 visitors to Ireland, annually. In 2015 visitors from the UK spend over €4.5 million in Ireland and tourism chiefs are eager to ensure that a common travel area be maintained between Britain and Ireland. Plummeting sterling rates and a decline in discretionary income among UK citizens arising from Brexit, also pose a threat to tourism where in Kerry alone 1 in 5 jobs, either directly or indirectly, are created by tourism.

As well as Brexit, other topics to be discussed are the future of tourism in Ireland; future consumer and business trends; what tourism businesses need to prepare for; tourism policy in Ireland, and issues effecting rural tourism.

The forum will be chaired by RTE journalist, Miriam O’Callaghan, and more than twenty-five high profile speakers have so far confirmed their attendance. Among the speakers are Professor of Finance at Trinity College, Brian Lucey, Chief Executive Officer of the Dalata Hotel Group, Pat McCann, and Irish Hotels Federation President, Joe Dolan. Other notable speakers include MEP, Sean Kelly, Independent TD, Michael Healy Rae, and Chief Executive of the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation, Eoghan O’ Mara-Walsh.

“Our aim is to create a forum where tourism business owners and managers on the ground can discuss the future of tourism in Ireland and network and share business learnings,” said Sean O’Driscoll, Conference Chairman and SKAL Republic of Ireland President.

“We would like to thank AIB, Kerry County Council and Failte Ireland for their support, as without it this forum would not have been possible,” he added.