Tuesday, 2nd March 2004

HOTELIERS URGED TO CELEBRATE EU ACCESSION

The newly elected President of the Irish Hotels Federation today called on hotels and guesthouses nationwide to arrange a ‘Day of Welcomes’ event in their premises on May 1st as a gesture of goodwill towards the citizens of the new European Union accession countries. Mr Dick Bourke, President, IHF told over 400 delegates at the IHF’s 66th Annual Conference in Killarney today that such celebratory events would acknowledge the contribution that employees from these countries currently make to the Irish tourism industry and it would act as an official welcome to all citizens of the 10 countries due to join the EU on May 1st 2004.

Mr Bourke, who was elected today, is the current General Manager of Jurys Ballsbridge and The Towers, stated that the IHF would be issuing a range of event ideas and suggestions to all its 1,000 members in the coming weeks. He outlined that as a large number of hotel and guesthouse premises already employ people from the countries (Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Malta, Cyprus and Lithuania) it would be appropriate to mark the day in such a positive manner.

“There are almost 75 million people living in the 10 accession countries and May the first will see, in effect, the biggest amount of countries and correspondingly the largest total population of people ever to join the European Union in one single instance,” said Mr Bourke.

“There is significant potential for Ireland’s tourism industry to benefit from people from the accession countries, who will undoubtedly travel to Ireland to seek work. Already, we have in the region of 2,500 to 3,000 people from the 10 countries working in Irish hotels and guesthouses throughout Ireland, where they are proving themselves to be highly motivated and dedicated employees. With the accession, our sector can expect an increasing number of high calibre workers to become available to them.”

The Irish tourism industry currently employees some 150,000 people, of which over 57,000 are employed in the hotel and guesthouse sector, the largest single employer in the sector. Irish tourism contributed some €5.2 billion to the economy and welcomed 6.1 million visitors in 2003.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Siobhan Molloy/Niamh Boylan Tel: (01) 676 01 68
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