Tom Bourke’s beer garden offers uninterrupted views of Croagh Patrick.

The owner of the gastropub The Towers on Westport Wharf knows that this valuable outdoor space is the key to his future business, when and if he can open.

“I made the garden weatherproof because I lost a third of my indoor seats with Covid,” he told RTÉ’s This Week.

Tom put down an artificial grass floor and put up a stretch tent to cover part of the garden. He also installed heating and lighting and expanded his gastropub by a further 80 seats.

But maybe months before Tom can get Penner on the seats, he’s doing everything he can to keep hope alive.

“We’re starting takeaway this weekend just to get out of the house and focus the brain on getting back to work and staying busy,” he said.

Tom’s wife Aoife also runs the Creel Cafe on the quay.

Closed since December 22nd, it has also started weekend takeaway and offers lunch, coffee and pastries for hikers along the harbor.

“It takes a lot of work to open up from nowhere. The shelves are empty, the fridges are empty. You have to order, package and prepare all of the food,” she said.

The Creel Cafe doesn’t have an outdoor area of ​​its own, but Aoife wistfully watches the wide sidewalk outside her door or the lawn across the street.

“It would be fantastic if we could take advantage of that,” she said, adding that it is owned by the council and that it is limited by what the council allows.

Fáilte Ireland has announced spring grants for businesses to develop outdoor spaces.

The local authorities can also use national funds for this. It remains to be seen whether parasols can cope with the wild Atlantic breeze.

Aoife and Tom are not expecting foreign visitors, who usually make up around 30% of the tourists who come to the area. They hope Staycationers will fill that void.

But if inter-county travel or indoor dining doesn’t return this year, survival will be threatened.

“I’d really have to think about whether I would even bother to open,” said Aoife.

“With the reduced capacity, you might be able to keep skeletal staff. It’s very difficult to know if it would be profitable.”

In the center of Westport, the red facade of Cozy Joe’s stands out in the cold February sunshine.

But owner Joe O’Malley fears what the second year of extended Covid restrictions will mean for him and other pub owners.

“I think it will be detrimental if we can’t go back to normal pub business this year,” he said.

Joe O’Malley outside his Westport pub

Cozy Joe’s has a small covered outdoor area, and last year Joe piloted some on-street parking. But he is not convinced that all of this will help.

“If you limit yourself to just 15 people in an outdoor area, it’s not even worth opening them up,” he said.

Joe also owns Porter House, a traditional wet pub in town. He welcomes the government’s support, but the cost of closing it still remains rising.

“It’s a joke what’s going on with the insurance industry for this particular trade,” he said.

“We’re closed for a year. You extend your premium, you say ‘Well I have no public liability’ where the high cost is, but they are still looking for the same premium and that’s it wrong.”

He believes any move by the government to increase the VAT rate for the hospitality industry from 9% this year or next to 13.5% would bury the pub trade.

“That would be a disadvantage if they increased the VAT. That would absolutely be the last nail in the coffin,” he said.

The Tánaiste recently announced that the 9% VAT rate, which is slated to end in December 2021, can be maintained in the next budget.

Joe O’Malley is also skeptical that stays can save Ireland’s tourism sector in the long term.

“You may be inundated with local tourists, but that will wear out very quickly. It will be a novelty for the first time and then it will wear off again.”

Promotion of push staycations

Fáilte Ireland is hoping for record household savings of over EUR 13 billion in 2021. The Destination Towns campaign will encourage people to take several small breaks in Irish cities this year.

On James Street, the family-run Clew Bay Hotel glows white, but the windows are dark. Darren Madden goes in every day to check that everything is working.

He said, “We have the heat on. It’s cold right now. The building is going to deteriorate if it’s not loved. We have someone in the hotel at night.”

While some places have been accepting bookings for Easter and the May bank holiday, Darren thinks a reopening before June is too optimistic.

“It gives people false hope when your availability is open and you are taking bookings. If it opens earlier we will work towards it,” he said.

In four solid months of Irish vacation business, Darren was in the first year of the pandemic. Now the government must support the business with a long recovery.

“VAT is something we haven’t been able to take advantage of,” he said. “The government should come out and let us know for a few years that we would have this support to get back on the ground.”

He said the wage subsidy system will have to remain in place for a while after hospitality is operational. He believes this would give some confidence to the owners and employees.

Darren also believes that any new government residency and spending program should be voucher-based – a point that Tom Bourke of The Towers Pub agrees with.

“A voucher for every home in the country, something simple. Something people can use because there has been a lot of confusion with Stay and Spend,” he said.

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After last year’s program, customers were required to keep receipts and claim money back.

It was reported this week that receipts worth € 8 million were sent to Revenue. The program began in October, just weeks before the second lockdown, so it has been essentially cut.

In Westport before the pandemic, one in six of its 6,000 residents was employed in the hospitality industry. However, as the second year brings more uncertainty, the sector is shrinking.

I was told that many employees have left the sector for fear of the stop-start nature of work during rolling lockdowns.

Beyond Westport, there are fears that reduced traffic through Ireland’s West Airport in Knock could limit tourism recovery.

“The UK market has always been a big market for us. Knock Airport has always been very important.” said Geraldine Horkan, CEO of the Westport Chamber of Commerce.

Geraldine Horkan

“This is one of the areas that we are concerned about and want to lobby for.”

A regional airport support plan was recently presented, pledging EUR 21.3 million for the country’s small airports. Ireland West Airport plans to resume some flights from next month.

The Wild Atlantic Way has had many good years, but now every hotel, B&B, outdoor company and pub is hurting. Ms. Horkan said the support of the local community has enabled many to make it through 2021.

“When restaurants switched to take-out, all of a sudden people, including me, who weren’t used to take-out were doing.

“It’s the old Ní Neart Go Cur Le Chéile. There’s a real sense of people coming together and supporting each other.”

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