Hoteliers want tourism support

Galway’s hotel and guesthouse owners are demanding decisive action in support of the tourism sector – after a massive fall-off in growth over the last twelve months.

CSO figures released last week showed an increase of just 1.8% in tourism growth last year, as against 6.9% in 2018.

Ardilaun Hotel owner John Ryan, who is also the Galway branch representative of the Irish Hotels Federation said that, while tourism had returned to growth in recent years, the recovery has not been evenly spread across the country.

And – as part of the industry’s pre-election proposals – he warned that continued growth cannot be taken for granted with regional tourism most likely to be negatively affected.

Commenting on the launch of the IHF’s national tourism policy document for the general election – A Strategy for Job Creation and Economic Growth – Mr Ryan said that tourism has been one of the great success stories of the economy in recent years, supporting over 260,000 jobs in every town and county, including 20,900 in Galway, contributing some €910m to the local economy annually.

“However, our industry now faces heightened uncertainty and remains vulnerable to external shocks, given our exposure to the economic environment of our major source markets, as Brexit clearly demonstrated,” he said.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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