Business

Department of Tourism gets complaints about Ireland pricing itself out of holiday market

Surging car rental costs and ‘price-gouging hotels’ make both Irish and foreign holidaymakers look at options outside of Ireland

The Department of Tourism has received more than 100 complaints about high prices in the Irish holiday sector. Some people say car rental has increased fourfold.

Ken Foxe
Sat Sep 17 2022 - 06:00

Tourists and members of the public have complained to the Department of Tourism about the high cost of going on holiday in Ireland this summer.

One family wrote about how they were going to have to cancel a planned trip to Ireland after being quoted 2,000 Canadian dollars for car rental. They had already paid a deposit for accommodation and said they now faced the cost of losing their flights as well because their holiday would not be viable without a car.

In an email to Minister for Tourism Catherine Martin, they wrote: “I work in healthcare, I have been working for over two years during Covid on the front line in a blood lab, and was really looking forward to resuming travel, to our favourite place on earth, Ireland.”

Another told of how the cost of renting a car for a four-day trip had more than trebled compared to a trip they had taken in 2019. One Irish hotel wrote to Ms Martin to say they were seeing bookings being cancelled because visitors simply couldn’t afford car hire costs.

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No longer affordable

And a German family with a holiday home in Co Cork said they would be travelling to France instead because of car rental costs.

They wrote: “The prices for rentals have risen at least four times. Holidays in Ireland are no longer affordable. I hope this will change soon and everything will return to normal.”

Complaints were also received about “price-gouging hotels”, with one saying they could stay in a private suite in Las Vegas for the cost of a moderate hotel in Cork.

There were also emails from Irish people saying they intended holidaying abroad instead of staycationing due to high costs.

The Department of Tourism said they had received more than 100 such representations over the summer months and under freedom of information agreed to release a representative sample of more than 20.

A spokesman for the department said: “It is clear that tourism businesses as well as many other sectors are facing cost inflation and other economic stresses including rising energy costs and increased wages in a competitive recruitment market.

“It is important that a balance is struck and for the industry to maintain the value-for-money proposition for Irish tourism in the longer term.”

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