Aer Lingus Strike will Damage Ireland’s Tourism Product

Warns IHF President

Friday 23rd February 2007

The Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) today said it was extremely concerned by the potential impact of industrial action at Aer Lingus on visitors to Ireland, particularly overseas visitors. The Federation stated that it is unacceptable for sectoral interests to be allowed to undermine Ireland’s tourism offering.

Commenting Annette Devine, President, IHF, said “It is an extremely worrying and short sighted development and has the potential to hold our members and their businesses to ransom. A strike by Aer Lingus staff would result in huge disruption to those visiting Ireland and presents a negative image of the country to overseas visitors. As an island nation, the threatened action would be very damaging to our industry and effectively undermines the businesses of some of our members, particularly those operating regional hotels and guesthouses. No sector should be putting its own interests ahead of the greater national interests. ”

“As Ireland’s largest indigenous industry, tourism accounts for 3.1% of GNP and contributed €5.9 billion to the Irish economy in 2006. The threat of this action creates major uncertainty and undermines recent achievements in terms of funding for Ireland’s regional infrastructure and increased investment in marketing of our tourism product. We are calling on appropriate dispute resolution mechanisms to be activated to remove the threat of industrial action,” added Ms Devine.

ENDS

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