Skift Travel News Blog

Ireland’s overseas inbound tourism level for the year is set to hit 75 percent of 2019 levels, CEO of Tourism Ireland Niall Gibbons told The Sunday Times (London).

Tourism Ireland forecasts the sector will fully recover by 2025. In 2019 Ireland welcomed 11.3 million tourists, generating approximately $6.1 billion (€5.9 billion) in revenue.

The strong U.S. dollar has benefited Irish tourism. But the strong euro relative to the British pound has dampened inbound tourism to the Republic of Ireland from the UK. (Tourism Ireland does marketing for the full island.)

Hotel supply is a top headwind for Irish tourism, Gibbons said.

“Latest official figures show that more than 20 percent of hotel rooms are being used for non-tourism-related reasons, including housing Ukrainian refugees and the homeless,” The Times reported.

“This year Tourism Ireland has a budget of about $69.8 million (€70 million) to spend on marketing Ireland,’ The Times reported. “The majority will go on television advertising.”

The marketing project he is most proud of since Gibbons became CEO in 2009 is the annual Global Greening, where hundreds of landmarks worldwide light up in green to honor St Patrick’s Day.

The value of the euro is plummeting and that means Americans vacationing in Europe will see their dollars going further, CNN reported.

The euro’s falling means the dollar and euro are almost at parity, and “the UK pound is also weak: It’s exchanging at $1.20,” the report said.

That means more expensive vacations for Europeans and British.

Even if the dollar is strong, though, compared with the euro and pound, hotel prices across Europe in May were soaring in some countries compared to May 2019 before the pandemic.

Average daily rates in May 2022 were up in Italy (23 percent), Ireland (21 percent), and Spain (17 percent) compared with the same period in 2019, according to STR Global.

The Irish Tourism Industry Confederation (ITIC) published an eye-catching report on Thursday that found that Ireland was among the top five costliest European destinations when it comes to accommodation, food, beverages, and getting from place to place domestically. That’s not good news if Ireland wants to win back its full share of tourism in the post-pandemic recovery.

Ireland is the priciest European nation for alcohol, more than twice the European average. It’s the second most expensive for transport; the third-most expensive for food and non-alcoholic beverages; and the fourth most expensive for restaurants and hotels.

For example, the average cost of Irish hotels has risen by 21.4 percent from €136.71 in May 2019 to €165.97 in May 2022, according to global hospitality analytics company STR.

Costs are partly being driven up by a reduced supply post-pandemic and from the housing of Ukrainian refugees, reduced staffing because of a labor crunch which means not all occupancy can be served, and soaring costs for energy that are being passed along to consumers.

“”With the reduced tourism VAT rate of 9% scheduled to revert to 13.5% in February 2023, Ireland will be amongst the top rate for visitors on accommodation and food across Europe.” — ITIC report