WITH Shannon Airport enjoying an excellent year, it might be assumed that tourism businesses in the nearby area are also, but the reality is more complex.
Maurice Walsh is General Manager of Durty Nelly’s in Bunratty, and he said the local night time economy has gone missing.
“Bunratty is flying at the moment, but at night time there’s nobody in the village after 9.30,, that’s where it’s falling down. There seems to be decent enough footfall during the day but we don’t have anything in the village after that, there’s no accommodation down this side.”
He said that the summer of 2024 certainly won’t go down as a vintage season. “It will be back on other years, though it’s strong during the day, it’s weak at night and the weather hasn’t helped. The Castle does seem to be getting decent numbers, but having that said there would have been two banquets a night and now there is just one most nights. That’s because the second banquet would have had people who were staying in the area.”
When the VAT rate for hospitality businesses went from 9% to 13.5% it had a very negative impact on the sector, Mr Walsh added.
“I did an analysis internally here and the effect of the VAT increase is huge, it is killing us. What we find with people coming in is that they’re sticking to one course, rather than two or three courses. You could have the same amount of people but they spend less money. People aren’t tending to spend too much on food or drink, they just have a main course rather than having a starter and main course too, that’s very noticeable everywhere.
“The whole industry is being crippled by the VAT, and that’s not being political, it just is.”
John Gavin is co-owner of the Shannon Springs Hotel, and his business is seeing the benefits of the increased passenger numbers at the airport.
“It has been a good summer, yeah. The airport is up and the additional flights to the US has really helped,” he said.
“The American tourists like to stay the night that they arrive into the country, plus the night before they go back. They like to be within touching distance of the airport.
“In our own specific case, we’re up about 8% in room sales compared to this time last year. That isn’t too big but we’re up about 4% on our average room rate as well, so there is growth in that area.
“The average length of stay is back a bit on 2023, which means we need more reservations. But 2023 was our best year on record so to be any bit up on that is great.”
On the negative side, it has been hard to get staff, while costs are rising.
“Getting staff is quite challenging, especially in middle management and senior positions,” he said. “Cheffing is on a different level, it’s very, very challenging in that area. Wage demands have increased as well, even on last year. Obviously the minimum wage increased this year for entry level employees so that had a knock on effect, the increases had to come across the board. Wage demands for chefs aren’t realistic at the moment due to food costs increasing so much, at the end of the month there isn’t very much left over for food businesses. Our rates bill increased during the year, and food costs are up 40-50%, maybe even more.”
He said there has been no option but to pass on some of the increased costs to customers, although they have limited it.
“If these increases keep happening, you can’t swallow everything, and it has to be passed on. We didn’t pass on the level of increases we had, and our margins are very tight because of it,” he said.
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked with a number of other publications in Limerick, Cork and Galway. His first book will be published in December 2024.