The chief executive of a popular vacation booking website in Ireland has urged the Irish public to ‘Occupy Ireland’ and spend their vacation time in Ireland.

Mike Webster of GoIreland.ie claims that were this to happen, 40,000 jobs would be created in the Irish tourism industry.

According to the Irish Times, Webster went on to say that people from the Emerald Isle spend more on their foreign jaunts that in total tourism income (collected from both Irish and foreign tourists) in Ireland.

He pointed to 2010 figures that showed that tourism in Ireland collected €4.6 billion, while Irish tourists spend €5 billion on vacations outside the country.

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“There is a huge opportunity for Irish people to take this into their own hands and not leave it to the political classes, who will take too long,” he said.

Webster underlined the importance of promoting the excellent vacation options available to the Irish people in their own country.

“Show people that they can get into the car and they are only an hour and a half away from a week’s holiday. We need to highlight the simplicity of it and the value,” he added.

While recognizing that the weather can play an important factor in the decision-making process for any vacation, he is hoping that that the sun shines strong this summer.

“I am positive we will have the best weather,” he said.