Passengers Call on Irish Govt to Scrap Tourist Tax
02-Apr-2009 |
Airline Code [RYR]
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Tags :Continental Europe, Ryanair
Ryanair, Ireland’s largest airline, confirmed that over 15,000 passengers have emailed Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan to call for the scrapping of their stupid €10 tourist tax which came into effect on the 30th March.
Ryanair passengers share the airline’s concern that this unfair flat rate tax will devastate tourism at a time when passenger traffic at Dublin Airport is collapsing, having fallen by 12% in February alone. If this scale of decline continues then Ireland will lose up to 2 million visitor journeys this year alone, which will cost the economy more than 2,000 jobs. The fact that these tourist taxes are a failure has already been proven in Belgium and Holland where their Governments have scrapped tourist taxes in response to deep traffic declines. The only other EU country with a tourist tax is the UK where air traffic fell by record numbers over the past year.
Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said;
“Since this gutless Government has ignored the concerns of Ireland’s largest airline and Ireland’s collapsing traffic figures we asked passengers just 3 weeks ago to sign a petition calling on Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Brian Lenihan to scrap this stupid tax. Over 15,000 passengers have emailed them already to highlight that Ireland cannot stimulate traffic and tourism by taxing visitors. We urge the Government to scrap this stupid tax. The introduction of this tax comes just days after the Dutch Government scrapped its tourist tax which has devastated tourism in the Netherlands. Ireland's first priority during this deepening recession must be to welcome visitors – not tax them.”
(c) Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. Date posted: 02-Apr-09 |
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Passengers Call on Irish Govt to Scrap Tourist Tax 
