The Dalata Hotel Group returned to profit in the first half of this year, as the tourism industry’s recovery from the Covid crisis continued to gather pace.
Latest financial results for the group – which owns the Clayton and Maldron hotel chains – show it made a pre-tax profit of €52m for the first six months of this year. That compares to a loss of €37.8m for the corresponding period last year and even outshone a near €38m first-half profit in 2019, before the pandemic hit the hospitality industry.
Dalata – which has hotels in Ireland, the UK and Germany – generated revenues of €220.2m in the six months to the end of June; up from €39.6m for the first half of last year, and even ahead of the first-half of 2019, when the group generated revenues of just under €202m.
In the UK, its main overseas market where it currently has nearly 20 hotels, Dalata saw occupancy rates recover to over 68% in the first half. Its UK revenues amounted to €56.3m versus just €10.2m in the Covid restriction-hit first half of 2021; and up on the €39.9m generated in the opening six months of pre-pandemic 2019.
Dalata Hotel Group chief executive, Dermot Crowley said: “The first half of 2022 was a period of strong recovery after the lifting of Covid related restrictions at the end of January. The year to date has also been very busy on the development front with the addition of six hotels (1,600 rooms) across four cities. This includes our first exciting step into continental Europe as we entered the lease for Hotel Nikko Düsseldorf. Despite a challenging start to the year, we delivered revenues of €220.2 million for the period, exceeding the levels achieved in the first half of 2019.”
