It’s good news for Sligo today with confirmation that Dalata Hotels Group, the biggest hotel operator in Ireland, has purchased the Sligo Clarion Hotel for €13.115m and has undertaken to invest a further €750,000 in refurbishing and upgrading facilities there over the coming year.

The 162 room hotel has become one of the most popular family hotel destinations in the region since it opened in April 2005 but there had been doubt over its future since receivers were appointed in November 2012.

Dalata has been managing the Sligo Clarion on a contract basis since April 2013 as part of the receivership agreement and had made little secret of its interest in buying the property outright if the opportunity arose.

Speaking to a Sligo Chamber of Commerce meeting in Dublin late last year, Dalata founder and CEO, Pat McCann – himself a Sligo man – was full of praise for the Ballinode property and for the progress made in recent years in revitalising the tourist and hospitality sector in Sligo and the North West region. When asked about buying the hotel outright however he was clear that his company would not pay over the odds for the business.

The Dalata group was established in 2007 and now operates 39 hotels in Ireland and the UK, 18 of which it owns directly with the balance operated under contract for their owners. It has over 6,500 rooms every night.

The new Sligo hotel will be renamed the Sligo Clayton hotel and will benefit from the extended marketing support for that brand from the group which should be a big benefit to traffic into the region.

Having a good quality product that is consistently available to the consumer is key to getting tourists to come, and to come back.  Sligo is fortunate to have a strong band of four star hotels in the region with four in the direct environs of Sligo town.  The joining of a Sligo property to a well-managed well marketed national hotels group can only be good for traffic into the region – a good day for Sligo and a future secured.