The crisis facing Galway’s restaurant industry poses a threat to the county as a tourist destination.

That’s according to the Galway man at the helm of the Restaurants Association of Ireland (RAI), Adrian Cummins, who warned that mass closures were on the cards unless Government addressed urgent viability issues in the industry.

This comes as yet another renowned restaurant announced its closure this week – The Boat Inn in Oughterard ceased operations with immediate effect on Monday.

In a statement posted online, Adrian O’Connor, who has run the decades-old establishment for the past 13 years said it was “profound regret” that he had to announce the venue’s immediate closure.

“For 13 years, we have served the community of Oughterard with food and refreshments for christenings, weddings, funerals, events and everything in between and what a pleasure it was to do so,” he said.

Adrian Cummins warned: “You could have parts of Galway and Connemara that won’t have a place for people to eat.”

“We’ve seen over the last six months that around 280 restaurants and food-led businesses have been forced to close down. We’re estimating that anything up to 500 businesses could close by the end of February, within the next six weeks,” said Mr Cummins.