General Industry News

Hospitality organisations call for additional government supports for businesses

Hospitality Ireland – 24.02.2021                                    

A number of Irish hospitality organisations have called for additional government supports for hospitality businesses that are closed due to COVID-19-related health and safety restrictions. The organisations' calls followed the announcement on Tuesday, February 23th  that Level Five COVID-19-related health and safety lockdown restrictions will be in place until at least April 5. However, a potential reopening date for hospitality businesses was not given, and it is likely that they will remain closed for at least several more months due to the continuing pandemic. Along with announcing the extension of level five restrictions on February 23, the government said that business supports and the pandemic unemployment payment (PUP) will be extended until June. However, several of the country's key hospitality organisations do not believe that this measure is enough.

ITIC says tourism industry might not return to 2019 levels of activity until 2029

Hospitality Ireland – 11.02.2021                                    

The Irish Tourism Industry Confederation (ITIC) said at its online "Leading the Tourism Recovery - ITIC Virtual Conference 2021" event on Wednesday February, 10th that activity in the tourism industry might not return to 2019 levels until 2029 in a worst case scenario. ITIC chairperson Ruth Andrews said that this is not a prospect on which ITIC is focusing, and it is hoping that the sector will recover much sooner than 2029. Andrews stated, "The most optimistic that we need to look towards is when we can get back to those 2019 levels of business, when we can get back to creating those numbers of jobs again, and we do envisage that is possible by 2025 to 2026.”But it is going to be contingent on the government continuing to commit to tourism and continuing to invest."