That's a yes from us.
An extra bank holiday on the Irish calendar could be beneficial in helping businesses recover from Covid-19, according to the Tourism Recovery Taskforce.
At the moment there is nine Bank Holidays here each year, and the taskforce believes the governemt should add a 10th during the off-peak season.
The recommendation came via it's Tourism Recovery Plan 2020-23, where it pointed out that fellow European countries Spain (12 annual Bank Holidays) and France (13) had more days off per year: “an increase in bank holidays would create additional domestic high spending short break demand and would extend the tourism season”.
It comes amid speculation the Government is reportedly considering plans to introduce an extra bank holiday this year on December 22nd, according to reports from Virgin Media News.
Here's a brief summary of the things discussed in the recovery plan:
- Business continuity grants and additional operational supports for enterprises
- Professional development supports for workers in the sector
- Liquidity measures to support vulnerable but viable businesses
- Facilitating the resumption of inbound international tourism
- Increasing competitiveness through a VAT reduction and actions to increase the cost and supply of insurance
- Increased domestic and overseas marketing expenditure
You can check out the full document here.
