THE Irish Hotels' Federation has welcomed the thrust of Fianna Fail's tourism policy launched at the weekend by Mr Bertie Ahern. In particular, the federation greeted a commitment to allocate more resources for tourism marketing.
The policy also includes commitments to introduce low interest loans for tourism development; continuing reductions of VAT in the sector and retaining duty free sales after 1999 within the EU.
The federation said the party had responded to many of its concerns and welcomed undertakings to address staff requirements and "to ensure that a national conference centre is developed to meet EU funding deadlines".
"We have been calling for a number of these measures for some time on the basis of the importance of tourism in Ireland now becoming the largest single industry in the country," a spokesman said.
Fianna Fail's spokesman on tourism, Mr David Andrews, castigated the Government for not referring to tourism in its 21 point plan.
"This is yet another hole in the 21 goals. The Government has no interest in tourism. The sector has been left on autopilot for two and a half years."