•David

Actions ITIC wants the Irish government to take in order to maintain competitiveness of the tourism industry include:

• Retain 9% tourism VAT rate
• Limit wage increases
• Control taxes and utility charges for tourism businesses
• Invest an additional 20M euro in marketing, branding and product development by Failte Ireland and Tourism Ireland
• Increase capital spending on tourism infrastructure to 60M euro annually

The #1 factor making the need for these efforts critical is of course the significantly lower value of the GBP vs. the euro, stemming from the UK 2016 Brexit referendum.Tourism is Ireland's #1 indigenous employer. And traditionally 40% of international visits to Ireland have come from the UK. But since the Brexit vote, Brits have been making shorter visits and spending less.