A new survey from the Irish Hotels Federation shows that more than nine million bednights were lost in 2021 compared to 2019 due to Covid-19 restrictions.
This rises to 19 million bednights lost when 2020 is also included, according to the survey which shows the scale of the impact caused by the pandemic on the hotel and guesthouse sector.
The Irish Hotels Federation is holding its annual conference in the Slieve Russell Hotel in Co Cavan this week.
The IHF survey of hotels and guesthouses nationwide also reveals that the industry's average annual turnover sank by 48% in 2021.
Hotels and guest houses registered an average occupancy of just 33% in 2021 compared to 73% in 2019, with Dublin City seeing an even steeper decrease at just 25% occupancy.
Average hotel room occupancy for the first two months of 2022 stood at just 38%, compared to 63% for the same time in 2019.
The IHF said that looking to the key summer months, forward bookings stand at just 39% for this year, compared with an average occupancy of 88% for the same time in 2019.
Elaina Fitzgerald Kane, the President of the IHF, said that while green shoots of recovery are emerging, recovery to 2019 levels is likely to be a number of years away.
She called on the Government to support the tourism industry recovery by cancelling an increase in tourism VAT planned for September, and to do everything within its power to tackle spiralling business costs across energy, insurance, water and rates.
The IHF President said the past two years have been the most challenging in the history of Ireland's hotel and guesthouse sector.
"IHF members, and indeed the entire tourism and hospitality sector, saw most of their business vanish overnight. While domestic tourism and staycations enabled many businesses to keep their heads above water, average occupancy for 2021 was just 33%," she noted.
"International visitors - with more €7.25 billion in foreign exchange earnings in 2019 - slowed to a trickle. Pre-Covid, we welcomed over 10 million overseas visitors to our country annually, supporting jobs and livelihoods in every town and village in the country. The scale of the decimation of the entire sector is unprecedented," she added.
Elaina Fitzgerald Kane said that while the industry is optimistic for the future, the pace of recovery is disappointingly slow.
"Our research shows that for January and February this year we are down almost a million bednights compared to the first two months of 2019. For the critical holiday months (June to September), current hotel and guesthouse room bookings for 2022 are way below par averaging 39% compared to an average occupancy of 88% for the same period in 2019," she said.
"This highlights the scale of the ground to be made up in advance of the summer," she added.
Today's IHF's survey also reveals that 63% of hotels are planning to invest in sustainability initiatives largely focussing on insulation, waste reduction, green energy and water conservation, while 32% expressed a desire to invest in sustainability initiatives but said they will not be in a position to do so this year.
