‘Price gouging’ comments on hospitality not warranted - Cllr

Cllr Micheál Naughton told the May meeting of the Donegal municipal district that he had been annoyed by some recent comments in the media about the hospitality and tourism industry being engaged in price gouging.

While he had a bias when it came to the tourism industry, he suggested that the debate “should be fair and honest”.

He said that people are talking about going to Spain to get value, but people should also realise the factors in Ireland that the hospitality industry was pricing themselves against, when it came to the product they offered in this country.

And comparing value in the north west region and Donegal was not the same as talking about hotel prices in the Capital, where there was ample availability and value for money.

He said that some of the comments were coming from sources that either were not involved in the hospitality sector or knew nothing about it.

He said that those in the know that there had been a huge collapse in the Thursday to Sunday business market.

“We need to get out there and get the message out of the value that is available here for visitors. If the numbers are not there and people are not coming, there are families working in these establishments that are raising families and putting them through school,” he said.

He added that there was an onus on everybody, including the Irish Hoteliers Federation to counteract some of the negativity that was prevailing out there at present.

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He said that appendages like ‘Rip off Ireland” was also clearly affecting visitor numbers and those thinking that there was no value for money out there.

And as for premises and businesses being used to house Ukrainians, he said that the simple truth was that if this were not the case, many of those same businesses would no longer exist.