Sligo/Leitrim Deputy Marc MacSharry is expressing serious concern about the economic impact resulting from the lack of tourism accommodation in the North West Region this year.
Speaking in the Dail today the Independent TD says the region has a high average of tourism accommodation involved in government contracts and around 60% of the usual beds won't be available when the season begins next month.
He says special support measures should be available from small businesses across the region who'll be badly affected by the lack of visitors.
Speaking on the Let's Talk show this afternoon Deputy MacSharry says there doesn't appear to be any real strategic planning for the inevitable adverse effects for local businesses…
It's not just tourism type businesses as we know, there is so much of our economy that is dependent on a buoyant 8 month tourism season.
Failte Ireland had given figures to me that every euro spent on accommodation, tourism accommodation, the typical holiday maker turns that into a further spend of 2 or 3 euro.
While they admit they haven't done any analyses on it, they did state that it stands to reason that if 30% of our accommodation isn't available, and we know its higher in our area, then that is a 30% reduction in revenue.
