Limerick gets ready to paint the town green - hospitality industry looking forward to St Patrick’s weekend

HOTELIERS in Limerick have reported a surge in bookings following the news that Limerick's St Patrick’s Festival and the parade are due to make a return this year.

Touted as a bumper four-day weekend, with March 18 now designated as a ‘once-off’ national bank holiday, the festival marks a welcome return for proprietors, who have felt the brunt of a two-year Covid enforced absence.

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Darren Harding, General Manager at the Clayton Hotel Limerick intimated that the return of the parade means “everything” and will bring a “great buzz and energy back into the city.”

With 40 million Americans claiming Irish heritage, Limerick hoteliers will be keen to welcome their Stateside clientele to the banks of the River Shannon once again.

Limerick Chamber President and GM at the Absolute Hotel Donnacha Hurley has been keeping a keen eye on his website analytics since the recent lifting of Covid restrictions.

Already, he has identified a 25% increase in searches on his website, with a real spike surrounding St Patrick’s Day weekend.

“What we have now is a lot of people shopping, looking now. It's still primarily Ireland, our secondary market would be Britain and we have seen an increase in activity from there.

“Our third market is the USA, and again, we see an increase there. But it's still driven significantly by domestic tourism,” he told the Limerick Leader.

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Stephen O’ Connor, GM at the Strand Hotel stressed that it’s been like a different place since the lifting of restrictions. He too, was caught off guard by the sudden announcement.

He added that St Patrick’s weekend is one of the highlights of the social calendar in Limerick.

As well as an ‘uptick’ in website traffic for March 17-20, phones have been ringing off the hook at the Strand, with callers looking to book rooms, many who haven’t been back in over two years.

“It’s really, really positive. There's a really good atmosphere among our team and we are all just delighted to be getting back to normality,” he said.