Tuesday, 23rd February 1999

PRESERVE IRELAND'S 5 STARS TO QUALITY

Litter proliferation and lack of investment in essential infrastructure, could jeopardise a situation where over 5.5 million visitors contributed over £2.3 billion to the economy last year, Bill Power, President of the Irish Hotels Federation told its annual conference today. He called on all tourism bodies, central and local Government to do everything in their power to preserve what the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) maintains are Ireland's 5 Star qualities that attract overseas visitors - Clean, Green, Physically Attractive, Good Access and Interesting Personality.

The theme of this year's IHF conference is quality and the organisation maintains that the provision of excellence in quality needs to be the central focus for everyone involved in the tourism sector.

"Tourism growth can only be sustained when everyone who in the business of providing services to tourists - be they state bodies or commercial interests - is working with the same goal of providing quality in all aspects of their service. We all need to work to preserve our 5 star status and seek the highest standards in every respect, from our environment and roads, right through to how we treat people when they arrive on our shores," says Bill Power. "It's all very well having marketing and promotional strategies to encourage tourists to visit our island and spend vast sums of money. But without having specific investment and programmes to improve our environment, and enhance the quality of what we are offering, overseas visitors will not leave with a lasting positive impression."

The IHF is calling on Noel Dempsey T.D., Minister for the Environment, to strongly enforce the new litter laws passed in July '97 and to ensure that those who breach the laws face stiff fines. Gardaí and local authorities should use their new powers to the maximum, so that the country's image - promoted abroad as 'clean and green' - is improved and enhanced.

"Litter is one of the great negatives of our country and we know from research that visitors to Ireland are shocked at the amount of litter spoiling our countryside and cities. Strict enforcement of the laws, is the only effective approach to deal with litter offenders - fear seems to be the way to influence polluters as numerous litter campaigns to highlight the problem have not solved the problem. We would urge the authorities to put in place more litter bins so that people have no excuse to just drop litter," continued Mr Power.

Access to Ireland's regions needs to be improved as a national priority for both Irish people and tourists alike. The IHF maintains that inadequate access is a major factor contributing to the uneven distribution of tourists throughout the country and concentration should be placed on improving our national road network.

"A major road programme to enhance access to the regions should be funded by public/private partnership. It should concentrate on the provision of a Western tourist corridor linking Derry, Donegal, Galway, Limerick and Cork with radial links from Dublin. In effect most tourist centres would be no more than 2-2.5 hours from an international airport or car ferry port. These roads are identified for upgrading already by the National Roads Authority (NRA) and we are calling for them to be given immediate priority," he says.

Poor signage is a constant irritant to tourists. The IHF says that although it's an issue highlighted time and time again no improvements have been made. It maintains that a national, co-ordinated strategy with specific signage location guidelines is needed to ensure uniformity from county to county. Currently 40 bodies implement road signage and according to the IHF this is obvious with each county having its own approach to the amount and quality of signage with no obvious linkages to neighbouring counties.

"Our confusing and inferior road signs are a constant irritant for visitors, never mind Irish people," says Bill Power. "The lack of good clear sign-posting is causing huge problems for tourists, with many getting lost, wasting time and becoming frustrated because of bad or absent directions."

The Federation maintains that one of Ireland's key attractions to visitors abroad is our people who's warmth and interesting personality has made the Irish welcome world famous.

"This is a key component of our success, people enjoy the wonderful humour and individualism they experience with Irish people," concludes Bill Power. "It's something we should treasure and protect, especially during current times where our 'celtic tiger' is making the pace of life faster and restricting the amount of time people have to take time out to welcome tourists," Mr Power concludes.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Siobhan Molloy/Ciara Sweeney
Tel: (086) 817 50 66 or (086) 8262280.