DUBLIN: The majority of Irish hotels and guesthouses have seen an upturn in business during the first six months of 2015 according to the latest quarterly barometer from the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF).
With overseas visitors up 12% year to date, the industry survey reveals that nine out of 10 hoteliers across the country report an increase in business levels compared to the same period last year.
The strong performance so far this year is continuing into the peak summer season with 83% of premises reporting an increase in advance bookings over the coming months.
Bookings are up year on year across all key markets including North America, Britain and the rest of Europe. Some 87% of hoteliers now have a positive outlook for their business trading conditions over the next 12 months.
In the area of home-grown tourism, almost four out of five hoteliers (79%) report growth in business levels from the island of Ireland.
The report’s authors however have cautioned that the recovery “is from a low revenue base following the downturn and is not evenly shared throughout the country with many hotels continuing to face challenging conditions”.
Business tourism is another area of growth. Of those hotels catering for corporate meetings and business events, 65% are seeing an increase in this area of their business compared with last year.
Stephen McNally, President of the IHF, stated that confidence among hoteliers has reached an all-time high since the downturn and continues to improve as the recovery in tourism strengthens.
