Hotel occupancy figures best since boom years

More than 500 hotel and guest house operators are gathering in Co Cavan for their annual conference as figures show that 2014 was the industry’s best year since 2007.

According to the Irish Hotels Federation, the industry generated nearly €6.5 billion in revenue in 2014, with hotel room occupancy reaching 64 per cent on average, up from 61 per cent in 2013.

The rise in income and occupancy is being attributed to the increased numbers of overseas visitors, which reached 7.2 million in 2014, a jump of almost 9 per cent.

Federation chief executive Tim Fenn said the recovery in the tourism and hospitality business had created of 33,000 new jobs since 2011. it now supports some 205,000 positions – equivalent to 11 per cent of total employment in the country. More than 54,000 of these are in the hotels sector.

However the figures show wide discrepancies in regional tourism. Dublin had a room occupancy of 73 per cent, up 3 per cent on 2013. In contrast, the northwest showed room 2014 occupancy of just 54 per cent, the same as in 2013.

Figures for the east and midlands showed a rise of 8 per cent in 2014, to 54 per cent. The rise in the southeast was 3 per cent to 61 per cent; in the southwest the rise was 3 percent to 62 per cent; in Shannon, room occupancy rose 3 per cent to 59 per cent; and in the west the rise was just 1 per cent to 64 per cent.

Of the overseas visitors, some three million came from Britain, 2.5 million came from mainland Europe, and one million came from North America.

While Mr Fenn said Ireland was “now firmly back on the tourism map”, regional tourism requires much greater support.

“Unfortunately, the recovery is slower in many rural areas, which continue to lag behind the larger cities and tourism hotspots,” he said. “This is a major challenge for many hotels and guesthouses, given the vital social and economic role that tourism employment plays in rural areas.

“The immediate focus this year must be to assist these areas live up to their tourism potential and attract a greater share of overseas visitors in 2015 and beyond.”