There is something quietly telling about the fact that Longford, a county in the midlands that is getting millions of euros from the EU to build greenways and new attractions, only has 116 registered hotel rooms. There are no plans for any new ones. Not one that is being built. This is the kind of information that is buried in policy documents and easy to miss when the big numbers look good. However, it is at the heart of a problem that Ireland’s new national tourism strategy has not yet fixed.
That’s why the government put out a new tourism policy statement in December 2025: it had real goals. Peter Burke, Minister for Enterprise, set goals for the tourism industry to grow by 6% a year in international revenue and 7% a year in domestic spending. He also wanted to create 250,000 jobs in the sector and get 90% of tourism small businesses to use more advanced digital tools. There are 71 suggestions in the strategy, and the goal is clear: all of Ireland, from cities to rural areas, should benefit from the growth of tourism. At least on paper, it’s hard to argue with that goal.
If the country’s infrastructure can keep up, that’s a tougher question. Consultants Crowe were hired by leaders in the industry to do a study that found Ireland needs between 10,000 and 15,000 more hotel rooms to meet expected future demand. There’s a big gap there. About 84% of Dublin’s hotels are booked all year, which means there isn’t much room for more people, especially during peak season. When supply rarely meets demand, prices tend to go up, which hurts Ireland’s value proposition, which was already under pressure.
At least there are plans to build new hotels in Dublin, even though the city council’s recent decision to double development fees has put some of those plans at risk. The picture is much less clear outside of the capital. There isn’t enough room stock in the Midlands, the Wild Atlantic Way, or the northwest to support a meaningful increase in visitor numbers, even though a lot of money is being put into tourism in these areas and new attractions are being built and marketed. Increasing demand through marketing is pretty easy to do. Planning, financing, and construction schedules are all parts of building new housing. Those things move very slowly.
It seems like Ireland’s tourism policy has, for a long time, only cared about getting people to visit and trusted the market to take care of the rest. Dublin and Galway took in the extra people, and the regions stayed mostly aspirational talking points in strategy documents. The new policy is a real attempt to change that, with Minister Burke pointing out the country’s untapped potential and promising a Tourism Accommodation Strategy that takes into account the lack of supply. That acknowledgement is important. In past cycles, demand was often seen as the issue.
The proposed tourist tax is the other part of the story. It is getting closer to becoming law. The Dublin City Council has planned a tiered nightly levy that could bring in about €17.5 million a year for the city. The levy would range from €2 for cheap hotels to €5 for five-star hotels. There might be a flat €1 levy in Galway that could bring in €2 million a year. At the moment, Irish local governments can’t add these kinds of fees without first getting permission from the Oireachtas. However, a Fianna Fáil Seanad motion has put that right on the agenda. Instead of being separate from Europe, Ireland would become a part of it.
It will be very important whether that money goes to improving the infrastructure for tourism in the region or stays in the cities that receive it. A tax that is collected in Dublin and used to pay for Dublin is helpful. A national plan for housing that actually builds beds in places like Longford, Donegal, and the Midlands is not the same thing. The goal of 50% revenue growth by 2031 is probably doable. The country will have to do more than just run a good marketing campaign, though. It will be necessary to build places for people to stay.
