Travel sector 'in recovery mode'

The travel sector is on the road to recovery with the second quarter likely to see the first growth recorded since early 2008, the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation said today.

Speaking at its annual general meeting at the Burlington in Dublin, incoming chairman John Healy announced the creation of a new Tourism Industry Taskforce to work with the State tourism agencies in designing and monitoring a new plan to encourage greater visitor numbers.

"The industry has been through a harrowing period since mid-2008 when business from all Ireland’s main source markets went into a precipitous decline which witnessed the loss of 2.2 million visitors annually and a revenue decrease of €1.7 billion, "said Mr Healy.

“Thankfully I believe we are at the bottom of that unprecedented down-cycle and we will see a return to growth in the second quarter of this year."

"Growth will be modest enough but even modest single digit growth will send a message of confidence to the industry and to the travel markets that Irish tourism is open for business and that substantially enhanced value is available across the entire sector,” Mr Healy added.

Also addressing the AGM earlier today, Minister for Tourism Leo Varadkar confirmed that discussions between the Government and airlines over abolishing the controversial €3 air travel tax are underway.

Mr Varadkar said he had opened discussions with Aer Lingus and Ryanair about the removing the tax as part of a deal to re-open closed airline routes and encourage more visitors to Ireland.

The Travel Tax, which was first introduced in the October 2009 Budget, imposed a tax of €10 per passenger for those travelling distances of more than 300km. Passengers on domestic flights pay €2 each way for their trips. The levy was cut to €3 in the last Budget.

Proposals to scrap the tax altogether were contained in the Fine Gael-Labour programme for government.

Speaking this morning, Mr Varadkar also said the Government was intent on making it easier for tourists from rapidly growing economies to visit Ireland.

“With many overseas markets showing signs of recovery as well as a shift in the perception of Ireland as a good value destination, I believe we are moving into more favourable conditions. Numbers coming through our ports and airports are stabilising and starting to grow again, as is occupancy in our hotels," he said.

“However, while economic prospects look brighter in some areas in much of Europe and North America there is still uncertainty, and we are still looking at levels of access far below what they were only a couple of years ago," the minister added.