Jurys checks in record five million guests

JURYS Inn hosted a record five million guests in 2016 with the company posting growth of 13.6pc for 2016 in Ireland and the UK.

Interestingly, Argentina was the country from which visitor numbers grew fastest, with growth up by 124pc compared to 2016.

Jurys said that the first quarter of last year saw the highest rate of growth, with visitor numbers up by 15.6pc in March.

The company’s parent, Amais Hospitality, has spent €50m in the past two years on rebranding and renovating the Jury’s portfolio.

“Overall 2016 was a very good year for Irish tourism and we were delighted to have welcomed over five million guests to a Jurys Inn hotel in Ireland and the UK,” said company managing director Jason Carruthers. “It was encouraging to see high levels of growth in both domestic and international visitors throughout the whole year and further sign of the increasing strength of the Jurys Inn brand,” Mr Carruthers added.

Jurys said that it had also experienced strong growth in traffic from the Czech Republic last year. Visits from Portugal were also up, while German tourists also arrived in increasing numbers.

Jurys Inn has four hotels in Ireland as well 31 in the UK and one in the Czech Republic. The company’s last set of financial figures for 2015 showed revenues of £193m(€233m).

The company said the figures for the first months of this year were “encouraging”, adding that it expected to drive further growth in the year ahead.

Company research found that overseas trips to Ireland rose overall by 10pc last year to 9.5 million.