Shannon and Cork airports should be open to all airlines and landing charges for 2003 should be scrapped on European flights to encourage increased access into the regions, Jim Murphy the President of the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) told its Annual Conference in Galway today. These initiatives would be positive measures to attract new air routes and new tourism markets for Ireland.

Mr Murphy maintained that given the current international environment, the Irish tourism industry needs to develop innovative and creative measures to encourage and increase the number of overseas visitors to Ireland in 2003.

"We need to provide incentives for airlines to encourage them to develop new routes from Europe into our regions and to retain existing carriers on these routes. The current incentives should be extended by at least one year. Given that 2003 is expected to be a very difficult year to secure overseas visitors, the last thing the industry needs is a phasing out of this incentive. This incentive would further encourage airline traffic and retain traffic threatening to withdraw at the end of their current incentive scheme," said Jim Murphy.

The IHF maintains that low cost and ease of access are the key factors influencing potential visitors to Ireland, and the onus is on the State to bring about measures to maximise on this, given Ireland's island status. Ireland's regional airports are an untapped resource that if marketed, managed and promoted commercially would be more effective channels to increase tourist numbers into the western and southern regions of Ireland.

"We are urging the Government to ask Aer Rianta to put the interest of this country and the 150,000 people employed in Irish tourism to the top of their priority list - not the profit line in their accounts. Airports are essential infrastructure to serve the needs of their communities. Ireland is competing in an intensely competitive environment in Europe for tourists and other countries have the advantage of land access routes, therefore we must prioritise creating incentives to expand our air route services," Mr Murphy continued.

In a related issue, Mr Murphy welcomed the announcement today by transport Minister Seamus Brennan T.D., that he is positive towards the building of a second terminal at Dublin airport, following the completion of a consultant's report examining its feasibility.

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