Hoteliers hit hard by Irish rail strike

A rail strike in Ireland has hit hoteliers in a year when business is already worse than the national tourist board had predicted.

Killarney in County Kerry, in the west of Ireland, is one of the towns that has had an uncertain rail service for the past two months. Hoteliers there claim they have already lost 5% of gross annual income and fear that if the dispute continues through August this could rise to 20%. One in eight tourists in Ireland travel by train.

This loss of business for the parts of Ireland that normally have a lot of rail visitors comes along with a drop of 1% nationally in the targeted increase in tourism set by the national tourist board for the first six months of the year.

Bord Failte says achieving the visitor target now depends on a particularly strong autumn from the British market.

Visitors had increased by 9% from January to April, compared with 1999, but there was a sharp slowdown in May, with June weakening further.

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 10-16 August 2000