Madam, – Forgive me, but I can’t see what all the hoo-ha is about regarding the €10 tourist tax so vehemently opposed by Michael O’Leary of Ryanair and Redmond O’Donoghue of Fáilte Ireland. We must get this into its proper perspective.
For example, €10 will buy you about two drinks in a bar or a small main course in a restaurant (if you’re lucky) or will take you about 2km or so in a taxi. On a recent trip I made to see my grandchildren in London my return Ryanair flight was €106.65 including two tourist taxes (Ireland and UK) but when I got to my car in the long-term car park in Cork Airport I had to pay €49.50 parking tax for my four nights away or 47 per cent of the airfare. This hurt much, much more than the two tourist taxes.
Bear in mind that many countries have tourist taxes – for example, Australia imposes a departure tax of 33 Australian dollars (€20) for each person departing from Sydney Airport and I’m certain Australia has a very healthy tourism industry. France has a tourist tax (taxe de séjour) of between €0.30 and €4 per person per day. Importantly, it should be remembered that France is the largest tourist destination in the world, with an annual visitor count of about 80 million.
Mr O’Leary is very well able to create new add-ons to his flights and he is just using the tourist tax as a bargaining tool.
Again, I think €10 is a very reasonable amount provided it’s kept at that. – Yours, etc,