DESPITE FLOURISHING domestic tourism, almost half the hotel rooms in the east coast and midlands region remained unoccupied in 2007.
New figures from the Irish Hotels Federation reveal that hotels in this area had an average occupancy rate of just 54 per cent last year. The region covers counties Louth, Meath, Westmeath, Longford, north Offaly, Laois, Kildare and Wicklow.
In the southeast and northwest regions, the "empty room" rate was 43 per cent.
The figures underscore the challenge facing hoteliers who fear that "economic uncertainty and a weakening in consumer confidence will produce significant challenges" for the industry this year.
Average hotel occupancy throughout Ireland last year was 64 per cent - on an average night one-third of hotel rooms were empty. Only the Dublin (72 per cent) and southwest (66 per cent) regions had average occupancy rates above the national average (see table below).
The number of hotel rooms in the State has more than doubled in 10 years to 58,000, following a hotel-building boom fuelled by tax breaks.
Irish hotel owners meeting in Kilkenny for their annual conference will today discuss ways to attract more foreign visitors in 2008 to compensate for the anticipated slowdown in domestic tourism.
According to the federation's chief executive John Power, "over six out of every 10 hotel bed nights sold in Ireland last year were to the people from the Republic of Ireland". He said this "leaves the sector vulnerable in a major slowdown in the Irish economy and highlights the need for greater efforts to diversify the geographic client base".
Mr Power said last night that a major theme of the conference would be "winning back the British market".
Last year 7.7 million overseas visitors came to Ireland, a 5 per cent increase over the previous year. However, while there was a big rise in the numbers coming from mainland Europe (up by almost 14 per cent), there was only "small growth" in the North American market (up by less than 2 per cent) and a slight decrease in the number of British visitors.
Mr Power said efforts must be made to reverse this trend because Britain remained by far the most important market, accounting for over four million of last year's tourists.
He welcomed the allocation by the Government of "€800 million to tourism marketing, training and product development under the National Development Plan".
As hoteliers and other delegates to the conference arrived in Kilkenny last night, Siptu held a protest meeting to highlight "low pay and the exploitation of vulnerable workers" in hotels and restaurants.
The union's regional secretary Christy McQuillan claimed that "the National Employment Rights Authority has identified serious breaches of workers' entitlements in 58 per cent of hotels inspected".
Siptu accused the hotels federation of "celebrating its success . . . with banquets, golf outings, and seminars on how to become even more competitive at the expense of their workers".