{"id":415382,"date":"2026-04-24T15:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T15:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/415382\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T15:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T15:12:11","slug":"should-you-holiday-in-ireland-this-year-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/415382\/","title":{"rendered":"Should you holiday in Ireland this year? \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The plans of many holiday-makers are up in the air with war in the Middle East<\/a>, airline upheaval, jet fuel supply fears and a fresh cost-of-living<\/a> crisis casting a long shadow over the summer and beyond.<\/p>\n

Uncertainty has seen many who routinely travel overseas hold off on bookings while many who come to Ireland from elsewhere are equally reluctant to commit.<\/p>\n

The unease has raised the prospect of a staycation<\/a> once again for some and another challenging year for hoteliers<\/a> struggling to survive on domestic business alone. <\/p>\n

Last weekend Aer Lingus started cutting hundreds of flights from its schedule because of \u201cmandatory maintenance\u201d, while Ryanair has been talking up the risk of fuel shortages. <\/p>\n

The two home-grown airlines are not unique in experiencing a level of turbulence not seen since the dark days of Covid-19.<\/p>\n

Some carriers have simply ripped up schedules, scrapping thousands of flights. Earlier this week Lufthansa stripped 20,000 short-haul flights from its schedule, including the Cork to Frankfurt route, to offset jet fuel prices which have more than doubled in six weeks. <\/p>\n

Airlines in the US and Asia are imposing fuel surcharges and baggage premiums prompting many to ask what\u2019s next. <\/p>\n

Paul Gallagher, chief executive of the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF), has been reading the tea leaves anxiously and says there is \u201ca little bit of nervousness\u201d in the industry about overseas visitor numbers for the second half of the year. <\/p>\n

\"PaulPaul Gallagher, chief executive of the Irish Hotels Federation, suggests consumers are ‘probably confused’ by ‘mixed messages’. Photograph: Chris Bellew\/Fennell Photography <\/p>\n

\u201cThe number of new reservations coming in has slowed a little bit,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

In a typical year an Irish hotel might expect to have 45 per cent of its bookings for the third and fourth quarters already secured, but Gallagher says few have reached that target. <\/p>\n

Consumers are, he suggests, \u201cprobably confused\u201d by what he calls \u201cmixed messages\u201d.<\/p>\n

He points to comments from Ryanair\u2019s Michael O\u2019Leary about fuel supplies only being guaranteed until the middle of May. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat is a worrying statement. And you have Aer Lingus withdrawing scheduled departures because of maintenance issues. That tightens availability. Then there\u2019s Lufthansa. There\u2019s a lot of things coming into play,\u201d says Gallagher.<\/p>\n

But, on the other hand, there are the comments of the Dutch government which has eased concerns about shortages saying there is enough kerosene for the EU\u2019s economy to cover the next five months.<\/p>\n

The Portuguese government, meanwhile, has assured travellers there will be no jet fuel shortages at its airports this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe shouldn\u2019t be worried at all,\u201d says Eoghan Corry, travel writer and owner of the TravelExtra trade magazine. <\/p>\n

\u201cNot only have Ireland\u2019s two main airlines locked in good jet fuel prices, they\u2019re also big buyers and will probably be able to pull rank a little bit when it comes to queuing at the pumps.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Four ways the Iran war could make life more expensiveOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

But, as Gallagher points out, it\u2019s not just fuel uncertainty shaping consumers\u2019 plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re already seeing inflation moving by about a per cent and potentially up to 4 per cent so the ECB [European Central Bank] is probably having discussions around quarter point increases and if that happens, it impacts domestic customers with mortgages or loans in an environment where they\u2019re already feeling the cost-of-living crisis,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

If aviation fuel supplies do become scarce, \u201cthen there\u2019s no doubt the Irish hospitality industry will be hugely reliant on domestic tourists\u201d.<\/p>\n

And if the \u201csales mix is going to change you\u2019re probably going to see prices moderate for the latter part of the summer and into the autumn. We have always had dynamic prices in the hotel sector but it works two ways \u2013 prices rise and fall and this might be a dynamic pricing moment where there is a slight recalibration but it will depend on how the market is performing later on this year. A hotel room is a perishable product. I can\u2019t sell tonight\u2019s room tomorrow; I can never make up for that revenue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eoghan O\u2019Meara Walsh, chief executive of the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation, says it\u2019s \u201ctoo early to say\u201d if there will be a radical upheaval in travel and a return to staycations this summer but warns of dark times ahead. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year there\u2019s about \u20ac450 million worth of tourism business that comes in either from the Middle East or via the Middle East so that\u2019s now gone or jeopardised and we don\u2019t know to what extent,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

Potential fuel shortages \u201care obviously not a good thing for tourism and the longer the Iran war goes on and the longer the Strait of Hormuz is closed, the more confidence from overseas markets will be spooked\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bit of a perfect storm.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"IfIf aviation fuel supplies do become scarce, Paul Gallagher says ‘then there\u2019s no doubt the Irish hospitality industry will be hugely reliant on domestic tourists’. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien<\/p>\n

All the unrest \u201cmay lead to more staycations because Irish families may not fancy fuel surcharges and may not fancy going to the Middle East and may not even fancy going to Turkey. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe other thing is might Ireland be seen as some sort of safe haven for international tourists because we\u2019re obviously well away from trouble zones.\u201d<\/p>\n

But while he searches for silver linings he says any boost in home-grown travel will not make up for lost revenue from overseas. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think they are going to compensate for the setbacks and the damage done by the conflict so it\u2019s going to be a net negative.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018Staycations\u2019 dip as Irish residents spend more time abroad in 2025Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He recalls that during the international travel restrictions of the Covid pandemic, Irish people \u201cto a certain extent rediscovered their own country and what was on their own doorstep\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut remember that about 70 per cent of the tourism economy is made up of international, and the domestic market doesn\u2019t spend as big as the US market or European market,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf hoteliers around the country can see bookings materialising from international markets then they\u2019ll be trying to stimulate demand and putting incentives in the marketplace,\u201d he says, although while bookings \u201care soft\u201d, it is not yet clear if people have hit the pause button or the stop button.<\/p>\n

Things are also shaky when it comes to outbound bookings. <\/p>\n

Tom Randles of the Irish Travel Agents Association (ITAA) says the post-Christmas period \u2013 before the outbreak of war at the end of February \u2013 was sluggish, but the situation became considerably worse after the US and Israel launched their attack on Iran. <\/p>\n

\"TomTom Randles of the Irish Travel Agents Association says it\u2019s too early to say if there will be a rebound or if more Irish people will chose to stay close to home this year. Photograph: Valerie O’Sullivan <\/p>\n

\u201cThat created a vast amount of uncertainty and any time there\u2019s uncertainty people hold back, that is just human nature and we are seeing that right across the industry,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

He suggests bookings are down as much as 20 per cent and he says it is too early to say if there will be a rebound or if more Irish people will choose to stay close to home this year. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you talk to travel agents around the country, they will say there are bookings coming in but they are not where they should be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brian Hughes owns the Abbeyglen House Hotel in Clifden, Co Galway and his outlook is best described as mixed. The early part of the summer is looking good for the west of Ireland and \u201cslightly up\u201d on last year, he says, but in the longer term he adds that \u201cthere are definitely concerns\u201d. <\/p>\n

He says hoteliers like him \u201cmake our living selling beds to tourists from North America who come for one night or two nights\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s our bread and butter and it\u2019s very hard to make a living selling to Irish people,\u201d he says. \u201cWe are living on the edge and we are all definitely nervous.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The plans of many holiday-makers are up in the air with war in the Middle East, airline upheaval,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[601,72,95811,943,171749,15940,61,11829,60,1899,6306],"class_list":{"0":"post-415382","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-aer-lingus","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-consumer-lifestyle","11":"tag-cost-of-living","12":"tag-fuel-protests","13":"tag-hotels","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-iran","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-ryanair","18":"tag-tourism"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}