According to a new industry report, 2,000 Irish pubs are going to close in the next 10 to 15 years as the recession changes consumers' behavior. More of the Irish are doing their drinking at home to save money.
Some 31 percent of bars outside the Dublin area don't expect their venue to continue as a licensed premises after the current owner retires, the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland said today in a report on its Web site. Ireland has about 7,000 bars outside the capital, DIGI said.
Pub sales are falling as unemployment soars, amplifying a trend toward drinking at home. Almost three-quarters of Irish bars said sales have fallen in the last five years, the report shows. Revenue has also been affected after Ireland banned smoking in public places in 2004 and more recently cracked down on drink-driving.
"We're looking at a fairly significant decline in numbers," economist Anthony Foley, author of the report, said at a press conference in Dublin. "We're looking at over two thousand rural pubs disappearing in the next decade or decade and a half."
Since 2004 pub sales have been steadily falling, according to the study, In the last several years, bar sales have fallen by 30%. England's pubs are having the same problems. In fact, some think that the end of the classic Irish and British pubs is not far off.
