All of Donegal’s hotels are expected to reopen following the return of tourism on June 29, the Irish Hotels Federation in the county has said.
Fáilte Ireland this week published guidelines for the tourism industry to ensure the safe reopening of tourism businesses.
Hotels and tourism providers in the county are counting down to the reopening. There has been a big interest in bookings for self-catering and caravan and camping accommodation in the north west, Fáilte Ireland said.
Visitors to hotels will see changes such as the absence of buffets and some hotels may not be open to the public, restricting use to residents and restaurant diners.
The chair of the Donegal branch of the Irish Hotels Federation, Paul Diver, said the early reopening of the industry, which was brought forward to June 29 from July 27, has made reopening feasible for more hotels.
“The fact that we have got July’s business, I would be confident that all hotels will reopen and will be employing a very high percentage of the staff they were employing before,” he said.
Mr Diver said there has been a huge increase in bookings since travel restrictions were relaxed on June 8.
There are more than 60 hotels in the county which employed over 7,500 people before the Covid-19 crisis.
Mr Diver said Donegal offers everything to ensure that it can have a very good season for what remains of the summer. Rural areas such as Donegal will appeal more to visitors than cities, he said.
“You would think that if people feel hotels are safe, and a Fáilte Ireland survey says they do, and we can get that message across and ensure it is safe, I think the domestic market, especially in Donegal, will be very busy. I think Donegal and hotels and along the Wild Atlantic Way will do very, very well this year, much more so than some other places than naturally attract tourists.”
Source: Donegal Live