Eoghan O’Mara Walsh: Nervous times for 20,000 tourism and hospitality businesses

Irish tourism is resilient but it will be tested every which way this year and that it is still standing is remarkable in many ways

Eoghan O’Mara Walsh is the CEO of The Irish Tourist Industry Confederation.

No sooner had a beleaguered Irish tourism and hospitality industry taken a breath as Covid-19 seemed to abate, then war erupted in Ukraine making projections for the year ahead even more difficult to predict for businesses throughout the country.

It has been some three years for Irish tourism since the 2019 peak: First the hardest of Brexits looked possible right up to the 11th hour, and then a pandemic swept the globe effectively closing travel, tourism and hospitality. Now, war rages on the European continent.