The Irish Hotels Federation has called for Budget measures to help the tourism sector.
In a pre-Budget submission, it calls on Finance Minister Brian Lenihan to freeze public sector charges and cut local authority rates by 30%. It also calls for the scrapping of the €10 air travel tax.
The hotels body says marketing funds should be focused on the British market and on business tourism, while the employment subsidy scheme should be extended to the tourism sector.
IHF chief executive John Power says hotels and guesthouses are struggling to deal with high rates, which he says have been imposed with little regard to the disastrous conditions facing business.
The body also wants the Government to change the rules covering tax allowances for new hotels. It wants the removal of a provision through which capital allowances claimed by investors are clawed back if the hotel ceases to trade within its seven-year tax life. The IHF says these rules act as a 'barrier to exit', by which unviable hotels stay open only to protect the allowances.
