The Chairman of the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation has said that as many as 200,000 jobs in the tourism sector are at risk due to the impact of the Covid-19 crisis.
Speaking on RTÉ's The Business, Maurice Pratt also said tourism last year was worth €9.4 billion to the Irish economy, with the estimate for this year falling to €2.4bn which represents a reduction of close to 75%. "That's a reduction of 75% in the value of tourism in Ireland, that's eight million visitors who won't travel to Ireland this year. "265,000 jobs is the number of jobs in the sector, so you could look at that and say potentially, if those eight million visitors don't return in a reasonable timeframe, that there could be up to 200,000 jobs in the sector at risk