Sir, – Letter writer Des Crowley ("Irish tourism, open or closed?", September 4th) experienced the frustrations of many at temporarily closed services in tourism recently. Mark Paul outlined similar issues in his piece on Friday last ("Staff wanted: Labour crisis stunts hospitality sector's recovery", Business, September 3rd).
The State has not conducted a labour force survey of the hospitality sector in over a decade so we can’t even quantify the level of vacancies and training requirements for the industry. There has been a resistance by Government to establish and fund a tourism study to delve into the contribution tourism makes to the country, establish the actual numbers of people employed and provide accurate statistical analysis regionally.
Any activity that is not measured can never be properly managed. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL VAUGHAN,
Proprietor,
Vaughan Lodge Hotel,
Lahinch, Co Clare.