But a worst-case scenario, it says tourism may not recover to 2019 levels until 2029.
“Tourism is Ireland’s largest indigenous industry and biggest regional employer, and Government must support it during these difficult and dark days,” said ITIC Chairperson Ruth Andrews, launching its ‘Tourism Roadmap for Recovery’ at a virtual conference.
To do that, measures such as offering future visitors free Covid insurance, extending the 9pc VAT rate to 2025, doubling the Covid Restrictions Support Scheme (CRSS) for tourism businesses and replacing the ‘Stay and Spend scheme with a staycation voucher are critical, ITIC says.
‘Stay and Spend’ was “flawed from the outset” and should be redesigned and relaunched as “a consumer-friendly, upfront household voucher”, said its CEO, Eoghan O’Mara Walsh.
But only 29pc actually took a holiday.”
Mr Tracey was one of the speakers at ‘Survive to Thrive’, a virtual event organised by Fáilte Ireland and attended by over 5,000 Irish tourism and hospitality representatives today.
With 2021 increasingly looking like another year of the staycation, Mr Tracey announced a €6m “heavyweight domestic ad campaign to encourage people to ‘Keep Discovering’ when the time is right.
“We don’t want people to take just one break in 2021, we need them to take multiple breaks,” he said.
The campaigns are ready to go, but providing any kind of timeline for planning or forecasting remains “nigh-on impossible”, added Paul Kelly, Fáilte Ireland’s CEO.
Just over €300,000 has been claimed by consumers under the Stay and Spend Tax Credit initiative - despite the Government setting aside €250m for the scheme.
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Fresh calls for July public holiday as pubs could stay shut until June & Covid-19 lockdown extended into February
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Updated: 21 Jan 2021, 10:44
HOTELIERS are calling on the Government to introduce a new public holiday in the summer to help the hard hit tourism industry bounce back from Covid devastation.
Hospitality industry sources told the Irish Sun they don’t expect to be able to reopen restaurants and pubs to indoor dining until late May or June at the earliest.
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Pubs and restaurants could be closed until the summer as the Government looks set to extend the current lockdownCredit: Collins Photo Agency
The Green Party has suffered another major blow with the resignation of two prominent councillors.
The party’s leader on South Dublin County Council Liam Sinclair and his colleague Sophie Nicoullaud both quit the Greens in the last week.
Mr Sinclair told Independent.ie said he felt it was inevitable he would resign at some point after the Greens entered government and wanted to leave while he is still on good terms with his now former colleagues.
The Tallaght based councillor said he did not support the Programme for Government as he did not believe carbon tax proposals were fair on the less well-off and also hoped there would be commitments on free public transport.