The Irish Tourist Industry Confederation (ITIC) has called for an annual allocation of €164 million to Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland in its pre-budget submission to the government. This represents a rise of €50 million from the €114 million allocated to the agencies in 2018.
According to The Irish Times, ITIC highlighted the fact that the agencies were allocated €153 million a decade ago and said that some of the extra money could be put towards establishing a Brexit “market diversification fund” for exposed tourism businesses.
Itic estimates that a worst-case “no-deal” Brexit could cost the Irish tourism industry as much as €260 million in 2019.
State Return
The Confederation also asserts that any tourism investment will ultimately deliver a 34:1 return to the state and insists that the government should not abolish the tourism industry’s special 9% VAT rate, the relevancy of which was called into question in the wake of a review by the Department of Finance this week.
© 2018 Hospitality Ireland – your source for the latest industry news. Article by Dave Simpson. Click subscribe to sign up for the Hospitality Ireland print edition.
