THE GOVERNMENT is coming under increasing pressure to remove the air travel tax, with the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation adding its voice to the calls yesterday.
The confederation, which represents organisations involved in the tourism industry, used its pre-budget submission to urge the immediate scrapping of the €10 departure tax.
The submission describes the tax as “a barrier to travel, an unnecessary disincentive to tourism and a move in the opposite direction to many other EU member states”.
It says that the “calamitous fall” in UK visitors, down by 25 per cent in August and down by 16 per cent this year to date, was largely blamed on the tax.
“Only more of the same can be expected unless there is early relief from this punitive measure.”
The submission says Ireland is particularly dependent on air access because of its island status. “The reduction in access costs, driven by low-cost airlines and ferry companies, has been a major contributor to Ireland’s success in tourism during the past 20 years. It is a costly mistake to reverse these gains through the imposition of a departure tax as this impacts on visitor arrivals.”
Earlier this month, a mid-term review from the Government’s Tourism Renewal Group called for the removal of the tax, and this was followed by a joint statement from the chief executives of Ryanair, Aer Lingus and CityJet making the same demand.
The Irish Tourist Industry Confederation’s pre-budget submission calls on the Government to do nothing in the December budget that could make the economic situation worse.
“The budget should stimulate economic activity, and avoid making expenditure cuts that damage enterprise and employment.”
The confederation calls for public sector reform, including a reduction in pay. It says there should be a 10 per cent reduction on all public sector and local authority charges and prices,including commercial rates.
ITIC also argues that the overseas marketing budget must be maintained to avoid losing market share.
It says there is a shortage of rental cars due to the sharp contraction in the domestic used-car market. It calls on the Government to introduce a car scrappage scheme to allow the trade-in of older cars against 2010 car hire registered vehicles.
“This would be self-financing due to the VRT and VAT revenues generated by the sale of ex-rental fleet cars,” it says.
