Dublin hotel business booming but experts warn over future

The Dublin hotel industry is enjoying a boom and is second only to Madrid in terms of growth last year.
The news comes following a survey carried out by global hotel consultancy HVS which found that the revenue per available room (revpar) of Dublin hotels rose by 13.4% in 2015.
That followed a rise a 13.2% in 2014 for Dublin meaning the city’s hotels are experiencing their best financial period in years.
Revpar is a metric used to measure a hotel’s financial performance. It divides its revenue by the number of rooms it has, meaning it can offer a fair comparison between large and small businesses.
Much of the increase for Dublin hotels can be put down to the thriving tourism industry as visitors from all across the world flock to Ireland. The majority of visitors get to Dublin first before venturing out across the rest of the island.
Although times are good at the moment, there is a word of caution to hoteliers as the industry is famously volatile. Just seven years ago in 2009, Dublin’s hotels saw a 20% fall in revpar.
Dublin is actually the fifth most volatile hotel market in Europe over the past ten years behind St Petersburg, Athens, Prague and Sofia. The least volatile markets were Berlin, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Paris and Brussels.
Joe Dolan was recently elected as president of the Irish Hotels Federation. He said: “Our industry has benefited enormously from positive economic tailwinds from North America and Britain in recent years, contributing to impressive growth in overseas visitor numbers. While this has provided tourism businesses with a much-needed boost, we cannot afford to take recent successes for granted – particularly at a time of increased uncertainty in the global economy. It’s vital that we focus on achieving sustainable growth while safeguarding our market share against potential risks.”
Read about some of the best tourist attractions in Dublin.
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