Dublin needs more hotels, says Fáilte Ireland CEO
Dublin will have a shortage of over 1,000 hotel rooms in 2020, despite plans to open 5,000 more bedrooms.
Fáilte Ireland says plans to grow the number of beds in the city will not meet demand.
There were no spare hotel rooms in Dublin on 40% of nights last year.
Fáilte Ireland is worried there will still be a shortage of 1,000 bedrooms in the city in 2020 despite plans for large number of new hotels to open over the next few years.
5,000 hotel rooms are expected to come on stream which is an increase of 20%.
But Fáilte Ireland CEO Paul Kelly says Dublin needs even more hotels: "There are about 5,000 new bedroom coming on stream which is great news but we think in three years' time we're still going to be about 1,100 bedrooms short in hotels in Dublin."
This year has been the best ever for tourism, with 9.6 million overseas visitors expected here by the end of the year.
2018 has been a great year for #Dublin with lots of exciting projects taking place. 2019 will see the continued development investment and implementation of Dublin projects. #SustainingSuccess Watch our new video for #Dublin https://t.co/Kf4aTGMa0f pic.twitter.com/AKPG9IJUfp
— Fáilte Ireland (@Failte_Ireland) November 12, 2018
Fáilte Ireland is launching its strategy to attract tourists to Ireland in 2019, with plans to attract people to the Midlands, and a Month of Food Festival next September.
They hope this could lead to a growth of 5% in tourist numbers in 2019.
Mr Kelly said that despite the exceptional year for tourism, it is important not to become complacent.
"There are many challenges ahead. The return to the 13.5% VAT rate will be a significant commercial challenge for tourism businesses, and the resulting upward price pressure could damage our international competitiveness," said Mr Kelly.
"Similarly, Brexit and the potentially wide-ranging implications it may bring pose a major challenge for 2019.
"However, despite these challenges, there is still lots of cause for optimism in the sector; continued long-term global growth in tourism; new market opportunities; our industry’s excellent international reputation; new accommodation capacity and tourism attractions coming on stream; increased government investment in the sector and, critically, further improvements to direct air access forecast for next year."
