As many as 14,000 jobs could be lost in the tourist industry next year due to recent events in the US and the foot-and-mouth disease in Ireland, the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) has warned.

In a pre-Budget statement, the IHF said preliminary estimates indicated that there would be fall-off of 550,000 in the numbers of visitors to Ireland in 2002, equating to a shortfall of £275 million (€349 million) in revenue.

The IHF called on the Government to undertake a five-pronged strategy to assist the tourism sector. This includes the creation of a tourism recovery fund of £20 million to help develop the UK and European markets and to nurture the US market for growth opportunities. It also called for local authority rates relief for stricken businesses; VAT reductions to enable accommodation providers compete with European counterparts, and environmental and transport initiatives.

The IHF's submission was published yesterday as Bord Fβilte said it was still expecting a 15 per cent growth in the incentive travel market in Ireland over the coming three years.

The tourist board's acting chief executive, Mr Niall Reddy, said Ireland was seen as a safe destination. "We're also seen as a rural destination in the sense that we're not seen as a big city and people recognise the friendliness of the Irish welcome. And I think these are the attributes or qualities that people are looking for in a time of trouble and strife. Therefore, I think there are opportunities for Ireland and we should go after our 15 per cent because I am sure we can achieve it in this particular sector," he said.

Mr Reddy was speaking at Bord Fβilte's biggest business travel workshop where international buyers representing the £30 billion incentive travel industry met Irish tourism operators.

In a series of one-to-one business appointments at the Burlington Hotel, 114 buyers from 16 countries met with more than 100 top Irish tourism operators.

The incentive market currently attracts 52,000 visitors to Ireland and is worth more than £70 million to the economy.

Incentive travel is becoming increasingly important for companies rewarding high-achieving executives, according to Mr Reddy.

"This is one of the most important segments for Irish tourism for two reasons," said Mr Reddy. "One is that they are very high spenders, they're high-yield people and, secondly, they use the very high luxury-type accommodation, so it has a double spin-off for us." The average spend for an incentive traveller is estimated at £1,600.

Irish tourism operators at the workshop said they had received very positive reactions from many of the international buyers. "There's huge interest, very much in the four- and five-star market products," said Ms Colette Duggan of Conference Connections which plans, costs and operates national and international conferences in Ireland.

"They're looking at Ireland as safe and they're looking at it from a cost point of view as well - Ireland is stable with reference to pricing structures within hotels. There are also quite a number of special offers to entice people to come back to Ireland and to look at Ireland as a conference and incentive market."