Dublin to see 11 new hotels within two years

The number of hotel rooms in Dublin is set to rise even further with the opening of 11 new hotels, it emerged tonight.

There are currently 17,000 hotel rooms in the capital and the bed occupancy rate, fuelled by record visitor numbers, is one of the highest in Europe at 74%.

Dublin Tourism chairman Michael Flood said that barring a world disaster, such as a flu pandemic, the new hotel rooms would all be filled.

“If you look at the sustained growth we have achieved and the conference centre that is going to come on line in the foreseeable future, we will need the hotel stock,” he said.

The new hotels would include the 450-bedroom Bewley’s Hotel in Dublin Airport, the 116-bed Carlton Dublin Airport Hotel, the Radisson SAS Hotel in the city centre and the five star Le Meridien Hotel in the Dublin Docklands.

Almost all of them are due to open within the next two years.

“The (Government) capital grants scheme has certainly kick-started the growth in hotels but now that they are disappearing, people are still continuing to build hotels. It is a vote of confidence in the industry,” said Mr Flood.

He added that with plans by property developers like Sean Dunne to knock down the Bewley’s Hotel in Ballsbridge and replace it with apartments, more hotels would be needed as replacements.

The new international conference centre, which is due to be built at Spencer Dock within the next three years, is seen as crucial to the future of tourism in the capital, given that conference visitors spend fve times as much as the average tourist.

Dublin Tourism chief executive Frank Magee said the city received 3.8 million overseas visitors last year who had generated €1.3bn in spending.

“With the 5% growth in visitor numbers over the past year, and the increase of 11% in revenue, our strategy for attracting high quality visitors in terms of yield is working,” he said.

Dublin Tourism has been involved in organising events to attract visitors such as the Samuel Beckett Centenary celebrations.

It has also introduced the first annual ‘Dubsday’ earlier this month where all major tourist attractions were made free of charge.

More than 10,000 people took part.