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THE IRISH HOTEL market remains stable, the latest figures show.
The most recent Hotels.com Hotel Price IndexTM (HPI®) shows that hotel room rates in Ireland remained stable in the first six months of the year compared to the same period last year.
Factors
The average hotel price is €81 per night, as hoteliers have managed to maintain price levels following a modest 4 per cent price increase in 2011 which Hotels.com said followed the high profile state visits last year.
Globally, hotel room prices rose 4 per cent in same period.
A number of factors contributed towards the stabilisation, including advanced bookings for festivals and concerts, the return of the conference market and the continued value on offer throughout the country.
Prices on the rise in Dublin and Belfast
Dublin hotel rates rose by 3 per cent in the first half of 2012 compared with 2011, bringing the average hotel price to €77 per night.
The capital’s prices continue to recover, particularly in the five-star and conferencing sectors while advanced bookings for high profile concerts are also providing a boost.
Dublin is still one of the best value capital cities in Europe – prices are lower than London (€137), Stockholm (€135), Oslo (€112) and Rome (€103). Athens is the only Western European capital city cheaper than Dublin. at €73 per night.
Hotel prices in Belfast rose 18 per cent in the first half of the year to an average of €88.
Hotels.com says this can be in part attributed to the Euro exchange rate drop, but also an increase in tourism during the first half of 2012 with the opening of the Titanic Belfast Exhibition and promotion of Belfast by Tourism Ireland.
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Ireland’s most expensive destination
The survey showed that Kilkenny is Ireland’s most expensive destination – despite experiencing the largest price drop in Ireland in the first half of the year.
Prices in the popular tourist spot fell 8 per cent but the city still commands an average room rate of €96 per night.
Galway is the second most expensive destination with prices down just 1 per cent, to an average of €94.
Waterford saw its prices rise 6 per cent from €65 to €69, while prices in Cork remained flat, down just €1 to an average of €79 between January and June 2012.
Risers and fallers on a global scale
Seychelles is now the most expensive country for hotels, with the average room price up 10 per cent in the first half of the year to €249.
Other countries that fared well:
Mauritius is second, with prices up 17 per cent to €178 on average
Brazil takes the third spot with rates up 11 per cent to €166
Switzerland is once again the most expensive European country and the seventh most expensive country in the world overall, with an average hotel price now €150
The most expensive Eurozone country in the latest HPIwas Finland, up 7 per cent to €112
Australian prices are up 10 per cent to €119 on average
South Africa saw its prices rise 11 per cent to €117
The Middle East showed signs of recovery, with all eight countries in the HPI reporting higher prices
Egypt, which experienced a fall in prices following the 2011 Arab Spring, saw rates rise by 3 per cent to €75.
Most expensive destinations in the world
What are the most expensive destinations in the world?
Capri on Italy’s Amalfi Coast once again tops the chart. Its prices are up 15 per cent to €239 per night.
With a price rise of 24 per cent to €210, Rio de Janeiro is the second most expensive destination in the latest HPIreport
New York is the third most expensive, with prices up 4 per cent to €178 on average.
Seamus MacCormaic, senior director market management at Hotels.com, said:
While prices are stable, it’s important to remember that we’re coming from three years of steep price declines and at an average rate of €81 per night, Ireland still offers exceptional value for both domestic and international travellers.
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@Disabled Junkie: And who would support the under 18 market, the many professionals who could never buy drugs, even if they were legal, The THC, would be restriced too, there goes another big chunk of the market. Legalisation will not solve the problem.
@Eric: Sorry Eric, I dont really understand what you mean. If cannabis were legal people under 18 would not have the free and open access that they have now!
@JusticeForJoe: I dont think he will have one. However, heres one that found that states with medical marijuana programs have experienced a decrease in opioid related deaths.
@Matthew Delaney: Certainly seems better than hammering the liver with alcohol. I have to admire Botswana where they have to do without it for the duration.
Looks more contagious than Covid-19. Will it make the news headline every day as Covid-19 did?
Mental health -to which this is part of- will have significant consequences for years to come.
I don’t believe a word of this. Surveys will tell you whatever you want them to depending on the questions asked but I’ll bet the question wasn’t “Didí you depend on alcohol to get you through the pandemic?”
@Justin Gillespie: I agree 100% with you ask…. a guy can have one can a night watching tv because he is bored and lonely, does not mean he has a drink problem.
@Paul O’Sullivan: and this is what happens. It’s like Chinese whispers. The article doesnt say ‘drinking problem’ it states what you just said. “Turn to drink because bored and lonely”.
Bad decision by the Government to put the Country into lockdown. Had the government developed a stradedgy to protect the vulnerable, i.e aged and sick people, this would have been a much more cost-effective course of action. If you calculate the culmative costs and other damage done, by rhem lockdown, going forward, i.e. economic meltdown, bank reposessions, person death, unemployment, budget cuts to future social problems, suicide, alcohol and drug relaspes, etc, etc,etc, time will proved their course of action wrong, all this to save people who already had one foot in the grave, through drug, alcohol and obesity, self abuse. It’s the next generation, we shoud be looking after.
@Eric: I disagree, if anything the government should have done the lockdown sooner to prevent more deaths. You don’t want the lockdown because woe is Ireland with its mental health and me me me, then fine, look to our neighbours across either the Atlantic or Irish sea and see how neither took a lockdown seriously and have either shrunken their precious economy by a fifth, or strained their own relations with their citizens to the point of destroying their own countries. If Ireland followed and did no lockdown, then we could have had much more hardship and more mental health issues with the amount of grieving happening of good men and women who ultimately would still be alive. Check the big picture of a lockdown. We didn’t do it for fun.
@Eric: Maybe you’d describe what this realistic and viable alternative might look like, one that would protect the vulnerable while at the same time being cost effective and listening to the experts. You would take advice from health and scientific experts and not someone who watched a couple of videos on Facebook and Youtube, wouldn’t you? After all I’m sure you’re more than qualified to dispel such words of wisdom, you must hold a PhD, at least a masters or two related to this subject. Don’t be shy.
@Arch Angel: You don’t have to look for Youtubers or other windy sources.
Dr Holohan himself stated that in future clusters would be fought with local restrictions rather than another national lockdown. Given that we are currently reviewing ‘airbridges’ with countries which have far higher total numbers of new cases, a regional approach is actually a reviewed approach.
@Eric: lockdown was the right decision. There’s no question. Length of that lockdown is what’s questionable. Flattening the curve has long been forgotten about now.
@Eric: No, a very good decision. However the arguements for when and how lock down is eased are more valid and ultimately political albeit based on best advice. But to suggest it never should have happened is nuts and certainly not based on experience world wide.
I for one, have not had a sip of alcohol since March 13th.
Drinkaware are a charity with a CEO and they must be looking for donations.. they were never going to put something positive out.
So does the guy who has 2 cans while watching Netflix every night because he is bored and lonely class as a person abusing alcohol??
A lot of these charities love applying psychology to get your hard earned cash.
@Paul O’Sullivan: Every night? If he can afford Netflix and the cans, then he doesn’t need charity, but it is a problem. Bit much to do that as a daily habit.
@James Walsh: ditto , just cant beat a sociable pint….. to go into a bar a create general conversation with a stranger beats commenting on the Journal.ie any day.
Everything has increased during this shite!! drinking, masterbation, suicide, Cancer, wrong diagnosis that can cost you your life, but only for 35 euro. Apparently a 1000 people die very year due to medical error in Ireland. Thought I’d throw that in there :-(
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