Ireland will need a further 11,500 hotel beds by 2032 to cope with tourist demand, according to one economist.
Speaking on On the Record with Gavan Reilly, report author Jim Power said international tourism is undergoing huge growth.
“I looked at 2019 for reference as the last year of normal tourism number,” he said. “In 2019, we had about 9.7 million overseas tourists coming into Ireland.
“Part of Oxford Economics has forecast that within nine years, there would be around 13.2 million overseas visitors coming to Ireland.
“The question is, do we have sufficient accommodation to cope with that sort of influx of overseas tourism into the country?”
Based on the 2019 figures, Mr Power suggested an extra 5,500 hotel beds would be needed by 2032, while also accounting for 6,000 beds that will likely be lost over the next decade.
Mr Power said many hotel beds have been taken out of circulation due to the war in Ukraine.
“I suppose the challenge will be when the Government contracts eventually end, how many of those hotels will come back into stock or will those hotels shut down?” he said.
Developing tourism
The EU has granted €68 million to the Midlands region to develop tourist infrastructure such as greenways – but it cannot be used to build accommodation.
“The Midland region has a really, really low level of hotel accommodation,” Mr Power said.
“If you spend €68 million in developing tourism attractions without providing the adequate accommodation to cope with that, then people are just going to use the greenway then leave again.
'Bars and restaurants are feeling the pinch'
Harvey’s Point Hotel Ambassador Noel Cunningham said “so much good work has been done” to improve tourism outside Dublin – but they simply don’t have enough beds.
“It's really tragic and really sad to see how many bars and restaurants are truly feeling the pinch,” he said.
He said it is right hotels are taking in refugees – but the Government needs to find a way to boost tourism in underrated areas.
“I would never, ever put that argument out there that everything that's going on with humanitarian provisions is helping us,” he said.
“It doesn't because we have to look at the bigger picture – we have to draw tourism to the region.”
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