Commenting on today’s CSO statistics for inbound tourism, Michael Magner, President of the Irish Hotels Federation states that, while there is still a difference between the published figures and industry data, the April figures are more aligned with what businesses have been reporting on the ground.

Commenting on the latest industry figures for hotel occupancy rates, Mr Magner says: “Our own industry figures, for example, show that hotels achieved average room occupancies of 77% in April compared with 74.5% for the same month last year. Meanwhile we have seen a 2% increase in bookings for the first four months of the year. From an industry perspective, this would suggest that overall tourism activity continues to hold up so far in 2025, despite the significant difficulties faced by tourism and hospitality businesses.”

“We are concerned about the overall drop in tourism spend which the CSO are reporting for April, down 10% compared with the same month last year. This would appear to be part of wider a trend so far this year, according to CSO figures. If this continues into the summer, it would pose an enormous challenge for tourism businesses throughout the country that are already struggling to deal with unsustainable increases in the cost of doing business right across our industry.”

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Tourism at a Glance

As Ireland’s largest indigenous employer, a vibrant and thriving tourism and hospitality industry is vital for the country’s economic well-being:

• 270,000 livelihoods supported by Irish tourism & hospitality
• 69,000 people directly employed by Irish hotels & guesthouses
• Regional employment – some 70% of tourism & hospitality jobs are outside of Dublin
• €10bn in revenue generated by tourism annually for the economy
• Over €2.9bn in taxes generated annually for the State by tourism-related activity

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