Hospitality sector calls for action

HOTEL and guesthouse owners in Wexford are calling on the Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohue TD, and the Government to introduce urgent measures to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 on their sector.

Enniscorthy hotelier Colm Neville, in his capacity as chairperson of the South East branch of the Irish Hotels Federation, highlighted the serious crisis facing the hospitality sector.

Mr Neville said hoteliers appreciate that the country is experiencing the greatest health crisis in living memory and that significant resources are being committed to address the overriding issue of public health. However, he said that the longer the delay in implementing measures to support the hospitality sector, the greater the risk is to the tourism industry.

He also highlighted the importance of the sector to rural Ireland and emphasised that while tourism supports 11 per cent of national employment 70 per cent of those jobs are outside Dublin.

‘Here in Wexford tourism supported 9,300 jobs and generated €227m in local revenues before this crisis,’ said Mr Neville.

‘Irish tourism has been a key driver of job growth over the last decade and it’s essential that our industry remains to the fore of the national economic agenda, including in negotiations on the Framework for Government.’

He commented that while political discussions are ongoing, further measures are urgently required to protect tourism livelihoods and address the enormous challenges faced by those within the industry.

‘ These challenges are existential for many tourism businesses and of a significantly greater scale than anything experienced during the last financial crisis,’ said Mr Neville. Wexford hoteliers are now calling for the introduction of a range of measures to enable tourism and hospitality businesses to plan for a recovery.