Irish-American tour operators are planning to sue Bord Failte and the Northern Ireland Tourist Board. Their concern is to stop an unfair situation whereby a competitor would gain exclusive access to the central tourist reservation and information system.
The operators have the backing of the powerful American Society of Travel Agents, which has cancelled a conference planned for Belfast in March.
The tourist boards sold a controlling stake in the Gulliver computer system last year to the Killorglin-based Fexco company, through which all requests for tourist information in Ireland and Britain are processed. The Americans want to stop the system being extended to the US on the grounds that Fexco owns a tour operating subsidiary there, Go Ireland.
Mr Bob Whitley, president of the United States Tour Operators Association, said the deal threatened "the continued participation of US tour operators and travel agents in the Irish tourism market". The dominant position proposed for Fexco would leave the market virtually devoid of competition. Mr Whitley claimed that consumers calling either tourist board's information line or logging on to either website would be linked directly to Ireland, by-passing US tour operators and travel agents.
Earlier this month, the association passed a resolution at its annual convention in Puerto Rico which called on the tourist boards and the Minister for Tourism, Dr McDaid, "to take immediate and decisive action to eliminate the dominance granted to Fexco".
Irish-American tour operators raised the issue with Dr McDaid when he was in New York for the premiere of Dancing at Lughnasa, but it is understood he told them he was leaving the matter in the hands of the Bord Failte chairman, Mr Mark Mortell.
A spokeswoman for Bord Failte said at the weekend it had received no formal communication about any impending legal action "but if we do, we will of course respond to it".
One of the leading operators, Mr Brian Moore of Brian Moore International, told The Irish Times yesterday he had been advised not to talk to the press. The tour operators concerned are among the best known names bringing Americans to Ireland, including Trafalgar, Globus Gateway, Brendan Tours and CIE Tours International.
Gulliver was sold to Fexco after the operation of the system was sharply criticised in a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General who reported that in 1995 it accounted for only 2 per cent of all reservations in the Republic.
Fexco undertook to spend several million pounds to upgrade the operating system. The tourist boards retain a 26 per cent share in Gulliver.