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Irish Hoteliers are Worried About Their Future
According to the data published by the Irish Hotels Federation, four out of five hoteliers have doubts about their ability to continue business in the coming year. This news came after rather positive results of 2011 that overcame the figures of 2010. Despite this fact the federation says a closer analysis of the situation shows that there are still many problems in the industry, such as falling occupancy rates.
The annual meeting of the federation has recently taken place in Kilkenny. One of the biggest problems of hotels in Ireland is in disproportion in rates and staff salaries. The hotel rates in some regions of Ireland are one of the lowest in Europe, while the wages paid to stuff are among the highest in the EU. In 2011 tourism was more profitable in Ireland comparing to 2010 – the total revenue increased from €4.6 billion in 2010 to €4.77 billion in 2011. However, that increase couldn’t make a significant positive impact on the hotel business of the region.
Hotels in Dublin showed positive results in 2011. Their occupancy added 2%. The occupancy of hotels in the west and southwest of Ireland increased by 4% and 5% respectively. The Shannon region featured a steady occupancy in the previous year, and the rest of hotels in Ireland featured the decrease from 1 to 3 per cent. With such figures the target of the government to create 15,000 new jobs in the sector seems to be hard to reach.
Even though Ireland was visited by 7% more tourists in 2011, that growth is quite tricky. The chief executive of the federation Tim Fenn says that the growth is the consequence of negative results of 2010, when the season had been almost ruined by the ash cloud from Iceland.
In 2011 27 hotels and 22 guest houses with the total of 1,500 guestrooms and 195 guest-house rooms were closed in Ireland. Currently the total number of guestrooms in the Republic exceeds 60,000.
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