Irish Hotels Federation president Joe Dolan has warned that while visitor numbers to Ireland are up on the whole, the hospitality and tourism industry cannot afford to be complacent about the future.
The Irish Independent reports that three out of five hotel and guesthouse owners say that the devaluation of sterling has adversely impacted their business in 2017, with UK visits declining 6% year on year.
Dolan proclaimed that although the industry needs to diversify into new markets, diversification cannot come at the expense of existing markets, especially the UK.
IHF data indicates that almost 70% of hoteliers have experienced a rise in US business, while more than half have recorded an increase in German business and nearly 40% have noticed a rise in business from France.
The upturn in the number of travellers arriving to Ireland from America and continental Europe resulted in continued growth in the hospitality and tourism sector to October of this year, but the pace was slower than during the same period in 2016.
