5,000 new hotel rooms planned for Dublin by 2020

Over 5,000 new hotel rooms are anticipated for Dublin by 2020 according to Fáilte Ireland

The Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport, Shane Ross TD and the Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, Brendan Griffin TD today welcomed the latest official data on overseas travel from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), which showed an increase of 7.8% in overseas visits to Ireland for the first seven months of 2018 as compared to the same period in 2017.

Commenting on the figures, Minister Ross said: “The data released from the CSO today is very welcome and clearly shows a steady rise in the performance of overseas visits as compared to the same period last year. There have been over 6 million visits to Ireland in the first seven months of 2018, representing a 7.8% increase on 2017."

Minister Ross said: "At the recent Tourism Ireland Mid-Year Review of Overseas Tourism, I saw how the continued growth this year has come from all of our main market areas around the world, and North America and Europe in particular. Sustaining and growing performance from our main markets together with developing growth from emerging markets is vital as we continue to build resilience into the sector through diversification. The challenges we face, including Brexit, rising oil prices and other international economic uncertainties, underline the importance of this approach.”

The latest CSO figures on Overseas Travel show:

• At 6.033 million visits, overall trips to Ireland were up 7.8% in the first seven months of 2018 compared to the same period in 2017.
• Visits from Mainland Europe grew by 10.6% for January to July 2018 (2.205 million visits);
• North America registered an increase of 13.5% for January – July 2018 (1.320 million visits);
• Visits from Great Britain increased by 2.5% for January – July 2018 (2.139 million visits).
• Visits from the rest of the world, mostly long-haul and developing markets, were up by 4.1% totalling 368,100 visits.

Minister of State for Tourism and Sport Brendan Griffin TD said: “The figures published today confirm that 2018 is on target to be another year of growth for Irish tourism. With 240,000 jobs now dependent on tourism, I am very conscious of ensuring that we sustain our success into the future."

Fáilte Ireland’s recently published report outlining hotel developments in Dublin estimates that over 5,000 new hotel rooms will come on stream by the end of 2020, along with almost 1,700 serviced accommodation rooms.

Minister Ross said: "These are welcome figures in view of demand pressures in the capital and they illustrate just how well tourism in Dublin is doing if it can attract this level of investment. However, the demand in Dublin also serves to highlight the importance in ensuring that we continue to ‘spread the load’ by extending the regional and seasonal spread of tourists. This is something at which the agencies have been successful in recent years, not least through the promotion of the experience brands outside of Dublin, the Wild Atlantic Way, Ireland’s Ancient East and, now, Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands.”

Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said: “Today’s figures from the CSO confirm that overseas visitor numbers increased by almost +8% during the January-July period, 436,000 additional overseas arrivals when compared with the first seven months of 2017. This was the best ever month of July for Irish tourism, with more than 1.16 million arrivals. Particularly welcome in today’s figures is the continued strong performance from North America, with an increase of +13.5%. A number of factors are working in our favour, including more airline seats than ever before, from more gateways across the US and Canada. We’ve also seen excellent results from Mainland Europe, up +10.6% on January-July last year, with particularly strong performances from Germany (+20%) and Italy (+15.5%). Tourism Ireland has prioritised North America and Mainland Europe, as markets which offer a strong return on investment, in terms of holiday visitors and expenditure. While we welcome the fact that arrivals from Britain are up +2.5%, it’s too early to say if this represents a turnaround in the long-term trend. The impact of Brexit on outbound travel from Britain, therefore, remains a concern.