FINE GAEL has promised to alter the visa system to allow more tourists from countries such as India and China.
Jimmy Deenihan, the party’s tourism spokesman, who compiled a tourism strategy aimed at putting the industry at the centre of economic recovery, said Ireland was not getting as many visitors from India and China as the UK because of differences in visa regimes.
“We have made this one of the priorities . . . That would be certainly one of the areas that we would really go after very seriously in order to hopefully capitalise on that growing market that’s out there, that middle class market that’s in both India and China.”
The publication of Mr Deenihan’s document was attended by the Olympic runner Eamonn Coghlan. Mr Deenihan said Mr Kenny had served as minister for tourism in the 1990s and so would ensure a strong focus on the industry if he became taoiseach.
Mr Deenihan said he had met the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) before Christmas to discuss hotels.
“Bank-run hotels may be upsetting the whole competitiveness of the hotel industry, rather than Nama. This is coming from the Nama people themselves,” he claimed.
He said he would like to see existing hotels remaining part of the tourism industry in future. “I would hate to see them converted to some other use. They were built as hotels so hopefully they can be part of the future tourism growth in this country.”
He also proposed Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland should be housed in the same premises “to facilitate more and better contact between both bodies”.
