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The Government has been called on to urgently intervene to safeguard 100,000 Irish tourism sector jobs at \u201cimminent risk\u201d due to Covid-19.<\/p>\nThe Government has been called on to urgently intervene to safeguard 100,000 Irish tourism sector jobs at \u201cimminent risk\u201d due to Covid-19.<\/p>\n
The Irish Hotels Federation said the sector was facing an exceptionally grim outlook and needed additional government supports in the upcoming Budget.<\/p>\n
It comes after new figures from the Central Statistics Office showed the number of overseas visitors to Ireland plummeted by more than 80 per cent year on year.<\/p>\n
Some 363,600 people arrived in Ireland from overseas in August, this represented a 60 per cent increase compared to the 227,300 people who travelled into the country in the previous month.<\/p>\n
But the statistics showed that overseas travel remained \u201cdramatically lower\u201d than the same period last year when more than 2.25 million people arrived in the country. Year on year it was a drop of 84 per cent.<\/p>\n
There was also a similar decrease in the number of people departing the country. Some 328,200 people departed in August, compared to more than 2.19 million departures in August last year.<\/p>\n
CSO statistician Gregg Patrick said overseas travel continued to recover in August, compared to July, but it was only a fraction of the overseas travel in August of last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis illustrates the continuing and dramatic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on international travel to and from Ireland,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Irish Hotels Federation said while the \u201ctrue impact\u201d on tourism was even more stark than the figures suggested as the number of people who arrived in the country included essential and non-tourism travel.<\/p>\n
The group said Ireland\u2019s tourism sector had been \u201ccompletely wiped out\u201d since March and that the situation had been compounded by a dramatic drop in domestic hotel booking as the sector entered a \u201cquasi-lockdown\u201d because of county restrictions in Dublin and Donegal.<\/p>\n
IHF chief executive Tim Fenn said that existing supports were totally inadequate for the tourism industry given the current restrictions.<\/p>\n
Prior to Covid-19, he said tourism supported 270,000 livelihoods, one in 10 of all Irish jobs but that an estimated 100,000 jobs of these have been lost so far this year and a further 100,000 are at immediate risk without substantial sector specific supports being put in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cA severely devastated Irish tourism sector would be a major loss to Ireland\u2019s economy and society for many years to come. This can and must be avoided,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur industry is facing a very difficult number of months ahead with many tourism businesses in severe difficulty.<\/p>\n
\u201cUrgent sector specific measures are now required from the Government to support tourism businesses and safeguard thousands of jobs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis must include enhanced employment subsidies, a reduction in tourism VAT, extended waiver of local authority rates and greater access to banking finance.\u201d<\/p>\n