“If you’re a small food operator, or you’re operating a pub, it’s really difficult at the moment,” said Dermot Crowley, Dalata’s chief executive.
Dalata operates its hotels under the Maldron and Clayton brands.
“We all pass pubs and restaurants that have closed or are closing and that has an impact on us all in the tourism sector,” he added. “It’s part of our product and appeal – the experience that a visitor will get in a pub in Dublin, Cork or Galway or in rural areas.
“Likewise, in terms of our food product, we can’t dumb it down,” Mr Crowley insisted. “It’s such a real attraction of visiting Ireland to have such great experiences in restaurants and in pubs.
“There’s no doubt that if you’re operating one of those at the moment it’s very challenging. We can see it by the numbers that have closed down in the past few years.
Our occupancy rate in Dublin in the first half was up 1.6 percentage points
“That reduction on the Vat rate is essential,” he said. “There are over 250,000 people employed in the tourism industry in Ireland and 70pc of tourism in Ireland is outside of Dublin – so it’s really important for the regions.”
Mr Crowley was speaking as Dalata released first-half results, in what is set to be its last such release before an agreement to sell the stock market-listed business to a Scandinavian consortium for €1.4bn is sealed.
Dalata shareholders will vote on the deal to sell the hotel group to Pandox and Eiendomsspar on September 11.
Dalata said its revenue per available room across Ireland has remained stable at the same level as last year, despite figures showing a clear decline in visitor numbers to the country, especially earlier in the year.
Revenue at the group in the first half of the year edged 1pc higher to €306.5m. Its adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation declined 5pc to €102.5m. Profit after tax tumbled 45pc to €19.6m, the company noted.
It blamed the sharp fall in after-tax profits on the cost of its strategic review that led to the agreed sale of the business, as well as on an increase in non-cash accounting charges.
Mr Crowley said the apparent fall in inbound tourists measured by the Central Statistics Office doesn’t tally with Dalata’s experience across its hotels in Ireland.
“I couldn’t understand them,” he said of the reported figures. The Central Statistics Office said the number of foreign visitors to Ireland had slumped 10pc in May.
“If those numbers were translating into arrivals at hotels, well then you’d see a significant drop,” he said. “But our occupancy rate in Dublin in the first half was up 1.6 percentage points.”
Yesterday, the Central Statistics Office said the number of foreign visitors in July dipped 1pc year-on-year.
“That makes more sense,” he added. “We’re behind in revpar (revenue per available room) in July and August in Ireland.”
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