Time to breathe fresh air into Dublin’s tourism strategy

Dublin has had another hugely successful peak tourism season, with full hotels, bustling shops and restaurants, and record tourist attraction visitor numbers.

It is a solid foundation on which we can build sustainable and profitable businesses, provide very significant additional employment opportunities and establish Dublin as one of the best city destinations in Europe. Now is the time to invest in our capital’s tourism assets and in building a robust and relevant brand image.

Not everyone agrees. Some believe that Dublin gets enough resources already and any additional funds should be focused on the regions. Some ask, why invest further in growing Dublin’s tourism numbers when there is a shortfall in hotel room availability and costs are inflating?

The scale of prize available, however, if Dublin can become a leading city destination and gateway to the rest of the island outweights these short-term and parochial concerns. Now is the time to invest in building a more sustainable sector, time to reduce the uncertainty caused by periods of excessive boom and bust.

Dublin tourism has many stakeholders: government departments, state agencies and authorities, city/county councils and a wide range of private sector players in transport, hotels, retail, attractions and restaurants. Sometimes there is conflict between these groups as each seeks to pursue its own agenda. We need a coherent and co-ordinated approach.

Shortcomings

We need to recognise that some shortcomings that should be addressed. There has been good recent growth, yet Dublin continues to underperform many of its “competitive set” cities. Research has shown that awareness of Dublin is low and its image is weak. While other cities consistently invest heavily in their brands, Dublin has underinvested.

Success also creates problems. We must find a way not just to drive growth but to manage the implications of that growth.

Recent growth has put a real strain on hotel room availability, particularly in the city centre and in the peak months, when occupancy has exceeded 90 per cent. There has been a resultant increase in average room rates (to €111 in 2015), a welcome recovery for hoteliers from unsustainably low rates.

That 2015 level was average for comparative European cities and considerably cheaper than Edinburgh, Barcelona, Amsterdam and Brussels.

Availability of accommodation will continue to be a real challenge as tourist numbers continue to grow. Dublin has 48,000 hotel bed spaces in approved accommodation, and up to a further 4,000 Airbnb bedrooms. Dublin needs more tourist bed spaces.

There are no quick fixes to this issue; a new hotel takes between two and four years to plan and build. Current known plans for additional hotel rooms suggest the capacity issue will not be overcome until 2019 when new additional rooms will (if current plans are implemented) jump to around 2,000 from its current number of just 400.

Shared vision

In the past two years, the

Grow Dublin Tourism Alliance

has been working on developing a shared vision of Dublin as a destination city. In 2015, following extensive discussion and engagement with stakeholders, an action plan was published and a brand communication campaign was launched. The “Dublin: A Breath of Fresh Air” campaign aims to challenge the current “dusty” perception of our capital, to embrace the additional proposition of our coastal resorts and surrounding mountains, and to extend the visitor season.

The alliance is not another costly quango, another layer of bureaucracy on top of a seemly excessive combination of state agencies and sectoral interest groups. This advisory board comprises representatives of all key stakeholder groups, both public- and private-sector. No one is paid fees or expenses. It meets to review the plans of the agencies as they relate to Dublin, offering advice on a wide range of issues that might, if unaddressed, limit the future potential growth of tourism in our capital city.

The executive function of the alliance is carried out by the existing Dublin team at Fáilte Ireland. Funding for the brand campaign (€1.6 million in 2016) is from a combination of public and private sector sources: from the government agencies, the councils and from businesses. Such a broad-based multiyear funding structure is vital if all stakeholders are to retain ownership of the future potential of Dublin as a destination.

Dublin already has so much to offer, and has received recent acclaim. Earlier this year, Lonely Planet issued its recommendations for the top 10 cities to visit in 2016, listing Dublin at number three, ahead of Mumbai, Nashville and Rome.

They referred to Dublin as a "rejuvenated classic . . . bursting with youthful creativity, life and cosmopolitan buzz". Just last month the reputable Condé Nast Traveler magazine reported that its readers had voted Dublin the third-friendliest city in the world. High praise, and a great foundation for growth.

Michael Carey is managing director of East Coast Bakehouse and chairman of the advisory board of the Grow Dublin Tourism Alliance. @careyonfood