Businesses in the hospitality sector say they need Government supports to mitigate the financial hit to their businesses as a result of the use of hotels and other tourist accommodation to house refugees.
here is a lack of accommodation for tourists across the country this year because rooms have been booked out by the Government to provide emergency shelter for refugees, including tens of thousands who have fled the fighting in Ukraine.
Accommodation owners are being paid but other tourist dependent businesses say they face a significant fall off in business.
“It’s a complex issue,” said Maurice Walsh, managing director of Durty Nelly’s in the Clare tourist village of Bunratty.
“Accommodation is obviously key to the hospitality side of things in the west of Ireland.”
Mr Walsh, who has been running the pub since 2008, estimates that the lack of tourist beds in the immediate region will reduce Durty Nelly’s revenues by 15pc from previous summers.
The neighbouring Bunratty Castle Hotel signed a €4.26m contract last year with the Government to continue to house refugees who have been forced to flee Ukraine.
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Mr Walsh thinks around 15 of the 80 holiday homes in the locality are also unavailable for tourists this summer.
Across Clare as a whole Mr Walsh, who is also vice chairman of the Clare Tourism Steering Committee, thinks 40pc of accommodation won’t be available this summer season, with businesses reporting a huge knock on to the night-time economy.
“That has a huge effect in relation to a county like Clare which is predominantly a tourist Wild Atlantic Way destination and it’s very, very difficult,” he told the Irish Independent.
“These are the issues that are out there, and they are not going to be resolved overnight, we understand that,” he added.
“We’re willing to take our bit of pain the same as everybody else as long as we can survive.”
Bank of Ireland’s head of hospitality sector business, Gerardo Larios Rizo, said that the lack of accommodation in tourism dependent countries is leading to “friction” between some hotels and local bars, restaurants and visitor attractions.
It makes financial sense for hotels in places most exposed to highly seasonal trade to go over entirely to providing accommodation for refugees, he said.
“Instead of having occupancy of 30pc or 40pc for the year as a whole, now [hotels] have 100pc occupancy with a decent enough rate sponsored by government,” he said.
“What I would expect is that bars and restaurants will lobby further for the Government to compensate them because… the normal trade that they would expect is being killed off,” Mr Larios Rizo said.
The Restaurant Association of Ireland (RAI) says it is speaking to the Government and working with other industry bodies.
CEO Adrian Cummins told the Irish Independent that options should include direct grants to affected businesses and a blanket extension of the reduced Vat rate for hospitality.
In February, the Government extended the 9pc Vat rate for the hospitality sector until September. It is then set to return to 13.5pc.
Meanwhile. Durty Nelly’s is adjusting its offering as well as canvassing local representatives.
“Traditionally, we would get an awful lot of walk-in business because of our location to the castle and the folk village,” Mr Walsh said.
“In the last six to eight months, we would have to rely more on tour operators for our business, which is great in one sense, but it would not have the spend of the walk-in business.”
Live music has now reduced from seven nights a week to three, he says.