TOURISM is booming the world over but Ireland is doing better than most. Recording a rise of 15 per cent last year, compared to a global growth of four per cent Irish tourism is expected to take over from agriculture as the country's biggest industry by 1999.

The number of tourists visiting Ireland has more than doubled since 1985, from 2.1 million to 4.7 million. And this year alone the Irish economy will benefit to the tune of £1.67 billion in foreign exchange from tourism. With a new hotel due to open every month in Dublin next year this boom in tourism will have created 35,000 new jobs by the end of the decade.

One cloud hangs over this story of unprecedented success. Where is the industry going to find people willing to take up all these new jobs. Ironically, despite a growth in unemployment of 5,000 in the past year to 283,000 there is a "recruitment crisis" in tourism.

"For every trainee we produce there are three or four jobs," says Bob Frizelle, manager of recruitment and placement at CERT According to research commissioned by CERT, a career in tourism is held in low esteem by school leavers, teachers and parents.

"The bad employers give the whole industry a bad name," says Mr Frizelle, citing low pay, stress, unsocial hours and the burgeoning alternatives to a career in tourism as factors disinclining young people to commit themselves to its ranks.

Norman Croke of SIPTU says too many employers show no interest in or commitment to their employees, relying on the State to train recruits that they take on, ... at low levels of pay, with along working hours as the norm".

Many employers, he says, deny a significant sector of the workforce, "particularly women, the dignity of permanent employment". Mr Frizelle and Mr Croke concur that if the industry is to grow as the market demands, it must look again at its staffing policies.