A group set up to help drive recovery in Ireland’s suffering tourism industry is holding its first meeting today.
Minister for Tourism Mary Hanafin is chairing the meeting of the Tourism Renewal Implementation Group at the National Museum of Ireland at Collins Barracks.
Established by the Minister last July, the body’s membership includes tourism agency officials, representatives of a range of interests within the tourist industry and departmental officials.
Ms Hanafin said the tourism and hospitality sector was “a significant source of jobs throughout the country and is the single most important indigenous industry we have”.
She said the sector had faced “perhaps the greatest set of challenges in decades”.
Overall, the number of trips made to Ireland in June this year fell by 5.7 per cent to 600,300 compared with the same month in 2009. The number of trips by visitors from Britain was down 3 per cent.
In May, the number of trips to Ireland from overseas was down by nearly a quarter compared to previous years, with a 30 per cent drop in the number of visitors from Britain.
Ms Hanafin said the group meeting today will oversee measures to support tourism in Ireland “to ensure that the sector is positioned for recovery and growth”.
She said this year’s Budget recognised the tourism industry as a “critical” sector and provided for a 3 per cent increase to over €153 million in the overall tourism services budget for 2010.
The renewal group was established on foot of a recommendation contained in a report published last October by a Government-appointed group chaired by businessman Maurice Pratt.
That Tourism Renewal Group report recommended that air travel tax be abolished as part of a “survival framework” for the tourism industry here. It also urged that investment in marketing be maintained and that wages, utility costs and rates across the sector be minimised.
The implementation body meeting today will oversee progress on the various recommendations in that report of October last. It will publish regular progress reports on the websites of the Department and the tourism agencies.
Ms Hanafin said specific measures such as changes in VAT and a rail travel initiative were helping the sector.
Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland had also built in recommendations of the renewal group to their business and marketing plans for 2010.
“The Government, the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport and the tourism agencies are working to assist the sector, to maximise business for Irish tourism and to ensure that the tourism agenda is in all relevant policies,” Ms Hanafin said.