Harcourt hotel group bookings triple for British Open in Antrim following McIlroy's Masters win
British Open golf championship at Royal Portrush in Co Antrim
in the two weeks after the Irish golfer's US Masters win. The Open takes place between July 17th and July 20th.
'In the two weeks after Rory had achieved his great success we saw a three-fold increase in bookings‚' said the hotel group's chief operating officer Clement Gaffney. While the group's Redcastle Hotel had an existing corporate booking for all of its rooms he said there was a surge in bookings at its other hotels in Ulster.
'
Rory
has shone great light on Ulster, and on the Open, which benefits the entire region. It has been fantastic, it has been very positive since Rory won.'
Even before the McIlroy's successes the Harcourt Collection of hotels had a 'buoyant start to the year', seeing group revenues rise by 10 per cent in the first quarter of 2025 over the same period last year.
READ MORE
The group's Ulster-based properties Lough Eske Castle, Redcastle Hotel and Spa, and Titanic Hotel Belfast, have been 'standout performers', the company said with 16 per cent revenue growth year-on-year in the first three months of the year.
100 days of Trump: 'It's like The Karate Kid, tax on, tax off, tariffs on, tariffs off'
Listen |
42:49
Hospitality industry groups have recently questioned tourism figures released by the Central Statistics office (CSO) showing significant reductions in spending and tourists in Ireland, with industry chiefs set to meet with the national statistics office on the matter.
'I've been following it with great interest,' the Harcourt chief operating officer said, but noted their hotels hadn't seen any reductions in visitors to their properties. Instead, he said, 'our hotels, our bed nights, our revenue, our rooms occupied, our occupancy, and rates, they have all shown very stable extended growth'.
Despite concerns that the number of tourists coming to Ireland could be affected by US tariffs and global economic uncertainty, Mr Gaffney said the hotel group was 'not seeing a drop-off in the number of US tourists coming to Ireland', with North American guests expected to account for more than 60 per cent of stays during the summer.
Instead, they are 'seeing very nice steady growth – recent growth - in Canadian business at our Caribbean property', Carlisle Bay in Antigua, as the country's tourism to its southern neighbour cools.
The group recently announced a planned €5 million upgrade of its five-star Lough Eske Castle hotel in Co Donegal which grew its room count by 28 per cent. This investment, Mr Gaffney said, has returned a 23 per cent growth in revenue for the hotel in the first quarter.
There is more investment to come, Mr Gaffney said, with Harcourt Developments set to commence construction of a 155-bed four star hotel in Liverpool and are looking at 'further development opportunities' in Belfast near their existing Titanic Hotel.
He said the Titanic Hotel in Belfast was 'trading at a very high occupancy on a consistent basis, which is a great achievement. What we want to do now is unlock further development in Belfast to capitalise and build on that'.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Examiner
22 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
David McNamara: Are economic statistics still trustworthy?
The firing of a little-known labour statistician by US President Donald Trump has brought to the fore an ongoing debate amongst economists — that is, whether macro statistics are becoming unreliable as the response rates to key surveys decline. In the US, major revisions to the benchmark payroll jobs survey are quite common and are typically shrugged off by investors and grumpy forecasters, whose models then require tweaking. In some cases, the revisions can completely shift the narrative of an economy, as was the case when US payrolls were recently revised sharply lower for May and June, precipitating a fall in interest rate expectations and a decline in the dollar. Response rates to this key survey have fallen sharply to 30-40% at present from as high as 70% in the period before the pandemic. However, despite President Trump's assertions of political bias, the revisions in the past few years to the payroll survey have been in both directions, with few signs of bias in the data. Nonetheless, covid appears to have left a lasting impact on the ability of statisticians to collect data across the world, with another example being the UK's labour force survey, which the Office for National Statistics has placed a large health warning on. The response rate to this survey has fallen from a pre-covid rate of 50% to just 10% at present. While the revisions in the US payrolls survey still appear to be random, the UK survey is demonstrating what economists might call 'systematic error'. In the absence of robust national statistics, a new cottage industry of private labour market data has emerged, which policymakers in the Bank of England, who have been struggling to get a gauge on wages and inflation, now rely on. In Ireland, the concentration of a small number of very large multinationals often renders initial estimates of GDP useless, but we have also seen large revisions to our labour force survey, including the sharp upward revision in unemployment recently. Emerging 'frontier' series, which use administrative data rather than relying on surveys, might become more reliable and prevalent in the future. For example, a new payroll employment series pulls data directly from the Revenue's PAYE system in Ireland, which gives a timelier estimate of the number of employee numbers. This series has been signalling a cooling of Irish jobs growth in 2025, which the official labour force survey might now belatedly show when the latest revisions are published later this week. The key takeaway is that economies are becoming more complex and harder to measure in real-time, with emerging trends such as AI having the potential to upend how we live and work in the years to come. Spare a thought for the beleaguered statistician in an ever-changing world. David McNamara is Chief Economist with AIB
RTÉ News
27 minutes ago
- RTÉ News
Rent for Irish Ambassador's residence in London jumps by €46,000
The Department of Foreign Affairs got hit with a hike of more than €46,000 on the annual rent they pay for the Irish Ambassador's residence in London. The department said it had little choice but to agree to the sharp increase even though it brought the cost of the property close to €10,000 per week. The new lease of €508,925 a year - a rise of 10% - was signed off on because no better options were available, according to records released under Freedom of Information. An internal submission said that the Irish Ambassador to the UK had been living in the property in leafy Chester Square since September 2019. In late 2022, the Department of Foreign Affairs said they were interested in extending the lease. While the landlord was happy for them to stay on, they said they wanted a "substantial increase" in rent of over 11%. Department officials tried, "actively but unsuccessfully," to negotiate a much smaller increase in rent. The submission said: "After several months, the landlord indicated that they would not accept any offer below £8,400 (€9,787) per week." At the same time, the Department had asked a property adviser to see if there were any other suitable properties available in London. A report said the type of residence needed for the Ambassador was only likely to come on the market half a dozen times each year. The submission said: "The market had hardened in the wake of Covid, with landlords less inclined to offer inducements or rent reductions to attract tenants." The property advisers examined eight properties in the area that had been let over a two-year period. They said only three of them had been leased for less than £7,000 (€8,156) per week and the majority ranged from £8,000 to £12,000. Eleven alternative properties were put forward, a number of which were "slightly" cheaper than the existing residence. The submission said: "It is very challenging to find an equally suitable property at a lower rent based on market evidence". "A move would probably necessitate additional fire safety and security improvements, at a cost to the exchequer, in addition to the purchase or rental of furniture," it added. It said the best-case scenario was that such a move would be "cost neutral" and at worst "less suitable and more expensive." The submission also said the department was looking to buy a residence outright but that this was not something that could be done quickly. "Although purchasing a property might be financially viable in the longer term, it has not been possible to identify such a property in recent months," the submission said. "Purchasing a property is not currently a viable option," it added. Asked about the lease extension, a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said: "Having given the matter careful consideration, and on the balance of market evidence available at the time, it was clear that a move would have no added benefit and would incur an additional cost to the Irish Exchequer". "Accordingly, the Department decided to renew the lease for a three-year period to September 2026, with the option to break at relatively short notice should a more suitable alternative become available," he added.
Irish Examiner
27 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
John Whelan: Years after Brexit, Irish food sector faces even more volatility due to Trump
When the UK left the EU in January 2020, many Irish companies bypassed the UK, particularly those in the agri-food sector. Many headed straight for mainland Europe, others for the Middle East, US, and Asia. But many others persisted with their established customers in the UK and only survived through determination, perseverance, or, in some cases, a total redesign of their supply chain. Fast forward to 2025 — and even before the UK-EU landmark joint announcement to scrap some of the most arduous customs regulations —and we are witnessing positive signs that the UK is back on the radar of an increasing number of exporters. However, in the five years since Brexit, the pecking order of Ireland's exports has shifted away from the UK, which fell from being our second-largest country market, behind the US, to third place, behind the Netherlands. This reflects a greater focus on building markets across the EU and further afield. Surprisingly, despite the decline and the slow recovery of the British market, the Northern Ireland cross-border trade hit a new high of €10.5bn in the 12 months to December 2024, showing a massive, 284% increase over the five-year period since Brexit. Britain and Northern Ireland have traditionally been our largest agri-food market, but Brexit has been particularly tough on businesses in the sector. Agri-food export sales to the British market have been fairly static in the period since Brexit, with sales increasing from €4bn in 2019 to €4.1bn in 2024. Unionists will see the trade growth of Northern Ireland as vindication of their demands for the Windsor Framework, but the agri-food businesses is still crippled with regulatory paperwork and inspections and will be urging the UK government to wrap up the proposed new sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement as soon as possible. The agreement, when implemented, is expected to provide a range of benefits, including the removal of export health certificates, saving businesses up to €250 per consignment each time goods are sent either from Britain or across the border. A single truck carrying a mixed load of animal and vegetable products could see a €1,000 reduction in costs. For example, a lasagne containing mincemeat, tomato sauce, and wheat pasta currently requires plant certificates and animal certificates and inspections for shipment. These will be eliminated under the new agreement. The agri-food exporters were, however, making significant inroads into other markets, growing exports from €9.5bn pre-Brexit to €11.1bn in 2024. Some of the growth came from a buoyant US market, which grew 14% to approximately €2bn. Drink exports grew by nearly a quarter, while exports of dairy were estimated to be up 4%, at €840m. However, exporters see storm clouds ahead, following the US tariff imposition of 15% on agri-food and drinks exports from the EU, which clearly will have significant negative impact on Irish businesses trading with the US. The UK free trade agreement with Australia and New Zealand, now in force, will also lead to increased competition for Irish exporters. For example, cheddar imports from New Zealand for the year to August 2024 stood at 8,000 tonnes, capturing a 3% share of UK cheese imports in one year. As there is no demand for cheddar across the EU other than the UK, this will be a severe blow to the sales of several Irish exporters, Ornua being a prominent one (it is known for Kerrygold and Pilgrims Choice brands). Other notable cheese exporters include Dairygold and Carbery. With 90% of Irish dairy, beef, and sheep output exported, stable fair trade agreements remain crucial for the sector's future. Brexit created wide-ranging problems for Irish exporters. However, the volatility being created by the Trump administration has ballooned in to a much more complex picture for all businesses trading internationally. Irish industry is now anticipating greater price volatility than created by Brexit and decreased market access across the globe.
