July’s hospitality spend continues to rise
“The good weather in July, combined with the reopening and increased roll-out of the vaccine has seen consumer spending in the hospitality sector continue to rise for another month”.
Spending in the hospitality sector rose again last month as the sector continued to reopen to include indoor dining for the fully-vaccinated. Spending was up 30% in hotels, 28% in pubs and 10% in restaurants.
Monaghan witnessed the biggest increase in pub spend – 56% up on the June figures, while Waterford saw a 37% pub spend increase. Leitrim saw the lowest increase in pub spend at just 19%.
But Leitrim was among those seeing the largest increase in restaurant spend last July at 15% along with the border counties of Donegal and Monaghan while Cavan reported a 14% increase.
“The good weather in July, combined with the reopening and increased roll-out of the vaccine has seen consumer spending in the hospitality sector continue to rise for another month which is positive to see,” said John Brennan, Head of SME Banking at AIB, of the data, “Despite the return of international travel in July consumers spent 30% more on hotels than the previous month indicating many are still opting to stay in Ireland for their holiday this year – a positive development for businesses right across the country.”
Busiest day
The busiest day for spending in July was the 30th, the Friday after indoor dining reopened, with consumers spending over €8 million an hour in shops and businesses. The quietest day for consumer spend was Sunday the 18th of July.
On Monday the 28th of July when indoor hospitality reopened consumers spent more than €6 million an hour throughout the day in shops and businesses.
Overall, consumer spending continued to rise in July, up 1% on June as the hospitality sector opened further.
Data was compiled from AIB Debit and Credit card spending from over 56 million transactions between the 1st and the 31st of July 2021.
County By County Increase/Decrease in Pub/Restaurant/Hotel Spending
| County | Pubs | Restaurants | Hotels |
| Carlow | +33% | +8% | +43% |
| Cavan | +34% | +14% | +37% |
| Clare | +32% | +8% | +29% |
| Cork | +32% | +12% | +31% |
| Donegal | +33% | +15% | +41% |
| Dublin | +22% | +7% | +26% |
| Galway | +30% | +10% | +22% |
| Kerry | +26% | +12% | +26% |
| Kildare | +26% | +10% | +33% |
| Kilkenny | +33% | +15% | +44% |
| Laois | +32% | +12% | +36% |
| Leitrim | +19% | +15% | +30% |
| Limerick | +33% | +10% | +30% |
| Longford | +29% | +10% | +45% |
| Louth | +24% | +11% | +55% |
| Mayo | +34% | +11% | +26% |
| Meath | +29% | +12% | +35% |
| Monaghan | +56% | +15% | +59% |
| Offaly | +27% | +9% | +41% |
| Roscommon | +31% | +9% | +41% |
| Sligo | +22% | +12% | +32% |
| Tipperary | +32% | +9% | +37% |
| Waterford | +37% | +14% | +33% |
| Westmeath | +25% | +10% | +40% |
| Wexford | +32% | +12% | +27% |
| Wicklow | +32% | +11% | +30% |
