Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 6 April 2022
Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media
Working Conditions and Skills Shortages in Tourism and Hospitality Sector: Discussion (Resumed)
Mr. Paul Kelly:
Yes. In terms of overseas visitors, the latest projections suggest the figure might be 60% over the full year. As the Minister said, when we get to quarter 3, that could be closer to 100%. Deputy Griffin mentioned the events in Ukraine. First and foremost, obviously, there is a significant humanitarian crisis and Ireland needs to do what it can to support and help. Nevertheless, about 4,000 hotel bedrooms are currently housing Ukrainian refugees. Of course, as the number of refugees increases, the number who will need to be accommodated will get an awful lot larger. If core tourism accommodation stock, such as hotel bedrooms, is taken out of the system, there will be significant knock-on impacts elsewhere. For every euro a visitor spends on accommodation, he or she will spend €2.50 in other parts of the economy, whether going to restaurants, pubs or visitor attractions, using transport and so on. If a significant volume of tourism accommodation stock comes out of the market over the summer, that will limit our ability to recover and make things difficult for pubs, restaurants, activity providers and visitor attractions that rely on those visitors. If potential visitors cannot get a bed, they will not come.
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