1 in 3 overseas visitors eats in pub

Nearly one in three overseas visitors has eaten in a pub in the last 24 hours with nearly half pronouncing the way in which the food was cooked to have been ‘very good’, according to a Fáilte Ireland Visitor Attitudes Survey conducted last year.

At 31 per cent, pubs were the second most frequent outlet for eating after restaurants at 40 per cent and above hotels at 30 per cent in a 24-hour period.

46 per cent of overseas visitors responded that the way the food had been cooked in the pub had been ‘very good’ with 51 per cent describing it as ‘good’ – all the other survey options such as ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’ scored less than three per cent.

Pubs scored less highly than hotels and restaurants when it came to the professionalism/efficiency of service, however, with a ‘very good’ score of just 43 per cent compared to restaurants with 47 per cent and – surprisingly, perhaps – hotels with 56 per cent.

There was another dip for pubs when it came to value-for-money perceptions with only 23 per cent of overseas visitors ticking the ‘very good’ box compared to 26 per cent for restaurants and 32 per cent for hotels.

In terms of ‘overall experience’, overseas visitors gave pubs a ‘very good’ rating on 40 per cent of occasions, similar to restaurants but six per cent below hotels.