B&B booking rises by 40%
The increase in bookings over January 2009 shows that business is certainly picking up, said its chief executive, Helena Healy.
B&B Ireland, officially launched by Taoiseach Brian Cowen in Dublin yesterday, represent almost half of bed and breakfast operators.
The new group, which has 1,100 members in cities, towns and rural locations across Ireland, has been formed from the merger of Town and Country Homes and Irish Farmhouse Holidays.
Mr Cowen said the bed and breakfast industry had pulled together, pooled resources and up-skilled to meet market demands, and their latest booking figures showed how effective this had been.
“They have embraced the technology needed to offer the sort of online service consumers and tour operators need and they are looking ahead to the future with confidence and optimism,” he said.
Mr Cowen said the B&B industry was worth more than €300m to the Irish economy, with more than a million overseas tourists staying at least one night in a B&B or guesthouse according to recent figures.
Ms Healy said the surge in bookings had mainly come from overseas tour operators who sold Ireland in the US, France and Germany.
She said overseas visitors in particular still wanted a sense of the real Ireland that they got from the B&B and farmhouse experience.
“Our new online booking facility is also helping because the B&B product is more accessible to the tour operators,” she said.
“The pick-up is definitely coming from the international market because B&B primarily is an international product,” she said.
“The hotel industry is our competitor and we are keeping an eye on it but people coming from aboard want to stay in a B&B because they see them as the real Ireland and where they can interact with Irish families.”
- www.bandbireland.com.
