Over the previous two years, the pandemic has resulted in a 19 million reduction in hotel bed nights, as well as a nearly 50% reduction in turnover in the industry.
It is predicted that the industry would not recover for “a number of years,” and the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) has called for an extension of the 9pc VAT rate for the sector beyond September, when the rate will revert to its pre-pandemic level of 13.5pc.
Hoteliers have also called on the government to assist them in controlling spiraling energy, insurance, waste, and rates costs, among other expenses.
Last year, the average occupancy rate for hotels and guest houses was 33 percent (or 7.7 million beds), with the percentage in Dublin decreasing to 25 percent.
In comparison, an average of 73 percent (or 16.7 million beds) was available in 2019. The total number of available beds throughout the nation is around 23 million.
The average occupancy rate in the first two months of 2022 increased slightly to 38 percent, compared to 63 percent in the same time in 2019 – a difference of about a million bed nights.
This year, according to an IHF poll, bookings for the summer vacation months of June through September are at barely 39 percent of capacity, compared to 88 percent for the same time last year.
“The previous two years have been the most demanding in the history of the Irish hotel and guesthouse industry,” said Elaina Fitzgerald Kane, president of the Irish Hotel and Guesthouse Federation.
Prior to the arrival of Covid, we welcomed over 10 million international tourists to our country each year, generating income and sustaining employment in every town and hamlet throughout the country. The extent to which the whole industry has been decimated is unparalleled.
The speed of recovery has been regrettably sluggish, notwithstanding our optimism about the future.
Tourism provides 270,000 jobs in Ireland, accounting for 11 percent of the country’s overall employment, with 70 percent of those jobs being outside of Dublin.
Hotels and guesthouses have reported cost hikes of 88 percent on electricity, 22 percent on water, and 18 percent on food and beverage costs from one year to the next.
According to the IHF, a third of properties (35%) have faced difficulty in obtaining insurance coverage, with rates increasing by 20 percent year on year.
Ms Fitzgerald Kane said that 68 percent of hoteliers were optimistic about the year ahead, despite the decline in occupancy rates, but she urged on the government to step in and provide assistance.
At her address to the International Hotel Federation’s annual conference, held on Tuesday in Cavan’s Slieve Russell Hotel, she said, “Rebuilding tourism to pre-Covid levels is the primary focus of the whole sector.”
In order to maintain Ireland’s cost competitiveness in the international tourism arena, “we will do everything we can to control our cost bases; however, we require Government measures that must have an impact on those areas outside our control – in particular escalating business costs, whether they are related to insurance, energy, or rates – to assist Ireland in maintaining its cost competitiveness.”
