A BANK FOR HOTEL AND TOURISM DEVELOPMENT

With well known hotels such as The Burlington, Parknasilla and Tinakilly House currently on the market and tourism SME's struggling to get finance, I think that the creation of a specialised bank for hotel and tourism development in Ireland might be worth considering.
Austria has such a bank since 1947. The Austrian Bank of Hotel and Tourism Development is a subsidiary of the three largest Austrian banks and provides finance for and subsidies to Austrian tourism businesses. While it is privately owned, it has a contractual relationship with government to provide long-term capital to the sector at favourable interest rates. Last year, it received a €100 million loan from the European Investment Bank to support tourism SME's, even though unlike Ireland, the Austrian tourism sector has been relatively untouched by the recent global economic crisis.
As a new banking system in Ireland emerges from the economic crisis, our tourism sector needs an alternative financial model to that currently available.