There has been a significant decline in confidence in the Irish economy among businesses operating in the ‘experience economy’, according to a new survey.<\/p>\n
The sentiment study, carried out by employers group Ibec, shows that 49% of businesses are now less confident about the economy, compared to 28% six months ago.<\/p>\n
Over 70 companies operating in the sector, which includes hospitality, retail, travel, tourism, food, drink, entertainment, the arts, sports and events, were surveyed as part of the research.<\/p>\n
The study was conducted in advance of the October Bank Holiday and mid-term break period.<\/p>\n
It also shows that seven in ten of the businesses have concerns about Ireland as a strong tourism destination, up from 57% six months ago.<\/p>\n
Ibec said the finding was “largely due to respondents noting a reduced demand from overseas travellers”.<\/p>\n
The business body said the experience economy sector contributes \u20ac4 billion annually to the economy and employs over 330,000 people.<\/p>\n
Eight in ten of those surveyed said they expect “wage growth to continue, consistent with 2024, despite firms expecting total or domestic sales to remain stable”.<\/p>\n
The Head of Membership at Ibec Avine McNally said events taking place across the bank holiday and mid-term break, from the Dublin Marathon to events and family activities for Halloween, “will provide a welcome boost at a time when confidence in the sector is moving in the wrong direction”.<\/p>\n
Ms McNally said increased wages, significant labour policy changes, inflation, and rising operating costs have “put this critically important sector in a precarious position over the past number of years, resulting in many closures”.<\/p>\n
“While the research doesn’t fully capture the boost the sector will receive from the Government\u2019s decision to permanently reduce the VAT rate to 9% for the hospitality sector beginning July 2026, it is important to appreciate the context of its introduction,” she said.<\/p>\n
Ms McNally said the experience economy has been “under substantial pressure, as reflected in this round of sentiment research”.<\/p>\n
She said measures such as “a targeted PRSI rebate may also be needed to further offset costs”.<\/p>\n
“A busy festive period will hopefully provide a further boost, creating the foundations for a more optimistic 2026,” she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There has been a significant decline in confidence in the Irish economy among businesses operating in the ‘experience…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[79,179,18,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-149099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115450518248796341","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}