Killarney

<p>By Sean Moriarty</p>
<h3>Hoteliers in Killarney have outlined, for the first time, the challenges they face, as a result of soaring costs in all sectors.</h3>
<p>With barely a week left in the traditional peak summer tourism season, operators are bracing themselves for a hard and long winter.</p>
<p>Difficulties in the hotel industry affect everyone in Kerry; in pre-COVID times the sector supported 15,700 jobs and generated €592 million in local tourism revenues annually.</p>
<p>“The outlook for our business will be different from October onwards and into 2023 as we deal with a number of pressing challenges including heightened uncertainty around inflation, escalating business costs, increasing risk of a global downturn and damage to consumer sentiment,” said Bernadette Randles, the chair of the Kerry branch of the Irish Hotel Federation.</p>
<p>She revealed some of rising costs her family’s business has experienced in the last year.</p>
<p>“Just to put into context the points and why we make them I will give you samples from the Dromhall Hotel costs but I know all my colleagues in our industry and other industries are facing a lot of the same key challenges,” she told the Killarney Advertiser.</p>
<h3>ELECTRICITY</h3>
<p>The ESB bill at the Dromhall Hotel has increased by €6,000 per month. In June 2021 the hotel paid €4,820.52 but in June this year they paid €11,369.69. In July 2021 the cost of electricity at the Muckross Road venue cost €5,597.09 but that had jumped to €11,892.21 by July this year.</p>
<p>“This is for, more or less, the same units,” explained Ms Randles.</p>
<h3>GAS</h3>
<p>In the same period gas prices increased substantially too. In June 2021 she paid €3,452.80 but 12 months later her bill was €4,801.45. It was much the same story in July, in 2021 the hotel paid €3,191.11 and a year later it cost €4,467.85.</p>
<p>“This was more or less for the same usage of litres in 2021 and 2022,” she added.</p>
<h3>FOOD</h3>
<p>The cost of wholesale food into restaurants and hotels has also risen dramatically.</p>
<p>A simple barometer is the cost of a loaf of bread. A sliced-pan cost €0.97 a year ago – today it is €1.35.</p>
<p>Cooking oil has increased from €22 for a 20 litre drum to €38 in the same time period while a 25kg sack of plain flour was €16 a year ago but now costs €21.</p>
<p>Meats like a striploin of beef went from €12.50 per Kg to €14.50 per Kg; a chicken fillet went from €0.98 cent per fillet to €1.35 which shows prices have risen dramatically.</p>
<p>“All these suppliers are facing the same increase in costs so hence they too have to increase their costs. It affects us all,” she added.</p>
<h3>FUTURE</h3>
<p>“While our industry is currently seeing a welcome recovery in tourism, this is being boosted<br />
significantly by a number of one-off short-term factors including high levels of pent-up demand, a<br />
temporary increase in consumer spending post COVID and displaced business from 2020 and 2021,” she said.</p>
<p>“A key challenge facing our business and the industry as a whole is the escalating cost of doing<br />
business which is having a detrimental impact across all areas of our operations.”</p>
<h3>BUDGET</h3>
<p>The Irish Hotel Federation is calling for a number of key measures from Government as part of Budget 2023.</p>
<p>They include:</p>
<p>1. Recruitment, Training and Development: Additional funding for hospitality recruitment and career<br />
awareness, and targeted resources for training and skills development.</p>
<p>2. Tourism 9% VAT: Retention of the 9% VAT rate for tourism businesses to support cost<br />
competitiveness in line with European competitors. The majority of Europeans have a low VAT rate<br />
on accommodation. Increasing the VAT to 13.5% would leave us with the second highest rate in the EU.</p>
<p>3. Investment in Tourism Marketing and Development: Continued investment and support for tourism marketing both domestically and overseas.</p>
<p>4. Cost of Doing Business: Improve cost competitiveness within the economy and avoid any cost increasing measures affecting tourism businesses.</p>
<p>5. Sustainability: Targeted funding for a national hotel retrofitting scheme to reduce carbon footprint throughout the sector in line with the Government’s climate action goals.</p>
<p>6. Insurance Competition: Acceleration of work with Department of Finance to attract more insurance underwriters into the Irish insurance market.</p>


Hoteliers predict difficult winter as costs continue to rise

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