Ryan Hotels has reported further strong growth in commercial and tourist business, recording a 20 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £1.92 million in the six months to the end of July last.

However, the strength of the pound against the Benelux currencies reduced its overseas earnings. This should cancel itself out again next year, provided the pound falls back again against other EU currencies, according to chief executive Mr Patrick Coyle.

In the first half of 1997, the group's Dublin and Galway hotels saw significant growth in business and its long-troubled Carat hotel in Hamburg, Germany, had finally turned the corner, Mr Coyle said. That growth, he said, had continued into the second part of 1997 and should translate into a good performance by year end.

Initiatives such as the Bord Failte and Northern Ireland Tourist Board's joint marketing campaign were beginning to work and had been successful in attracting more high-spending tourists to Ireland, he said. "There is no doubt but that the Tourism Ireland Brand is working, even though it is massively under-funded. There is now a need to put the necessary funds behind it and, if that is done, it will pay big dividends for the tourist industry," he said.

Sales across the Ryan hotel group, which includes five Irish hotels and one each in Hamburg, Amsterdam and Brussels, increased from £13.8 million to £14.4 million in the half-year period. For shareholders, the good results translate into a 10 per cent increase in its interim dividend to 0.68p per share, against 0.62p in the same period last year.

The group's extensive refurbishment and expansion of its flagship Gresham hotel was running on schedule and the 100-bedroom extension and 150-space multi-storey car park would open in June 1998, Mr Coyle said. It had also recently acquired a ground floor property on the corner of O'Connell Street and Cathal Brugha Street, which will link up with the existing hotel and allow it to upgrade the facade.

Ryan is also adding fitness centres to the Gresham, and its Le Belson Hotel in Brussels for its guests and is continuing to upgrade its hotels in Limerick and Galway. This year, it has spent £1.6 million on capital expenditure which is being funded out of its internal cash resources and some bank borrowings. Mr Coyle added that the group may also look at the possibility of expanding the number of bedrooms at its Galway hotel and would also consider suitable acquisition opportunities in the British market.