Fáilte Ireland admitted the situation facing tourism operators nationwide was now "catastrophic." Dozens of Irish hotels could close over the next 48 hours. Kerry now faces per capita the greatest scale of job losses and hotel closures given the sheer size of its hospitality and tourism industry. Irish Hotel Federation (IHF) members now want the Government to outline what it proposes to do to help the virus crisis-hit industry. Each season, the Irish hotel industry contributes some €8.75m to the economy and employs almost 70,000 people both full and part-time.

Source: Irish Independent March 16, 2020 12:56 UTC