"There are currently 35,000 hotel beds in Ireland and a further 15,000 are planned. Of these, I believe around 12,000 will be obsolete before they are built. The availability of tax incentives is the main impetus behind many new hotels and that is clearly unsustainable in the long term, " he says.

From a design point of view, Wallace says the majority of hotels being built are no different from those of a decade ago and this has to change if the sector is to survive.

"Irish people are going abroad more frequently and being exposed to cosmopolitan experiences. The industry needs to do the same thing and open its mind to trends in international design. There too many uniform, bland hotels where there should be a premium on individuality and offering the higher standards of quality and luxury that guests now expect, " he says.

Douglas Wallace is one of the leading architecture and design companies in this country. The company recently designed the g Hotel in Galway in collaboration with milliner Philip Treacy and the d hotel in Drogheda.

Both of these projects, which were acclaimed for their innovative design, were developed by Gerry Barrett of Edward Holdings and next month the firm will lodge a planning application for a new designer hotel at Hatch Hall off Leeson Street in Dublin.

Edward Holdings purchased the building for 16m last year and it is believed another international designer will aid in the plans for the former university residence.

Douglas Wallace previously worked with John Rocha on the Morrison Hotel, one of the first designer hotels to open in the capital.

Wallace is also sceptical of the rating system for hotels in Ireland. "It is clear that some four- and three-star hotels are simply not of that standard. There is nothing wrong with a two-star hotel but all the operators in the industry insist on a higher rating, even though there is little justification for it. This devalues the system and makes it harder for people to have faith in it. It is definitely something that needs to be looked at."

Wallace was speaking after a seminar his firm organised to debate the challenges facing the hotel industry. Also at the event was Matt McNulty, former chief executive of Bord Failte and current chairman of Design Ireland, who agrees with Wallace that hotels in Ireland need to face up to a more competitive global environment.

"There will continue to be exponential growth in tourism but it is countries who plan their attractions rather than those who simply rely on natural advantages that will emerge as the winners, " says McNulty.

McNulty identified several trends that hoteliers should be mindful of.

"The en suite bedroom will soon be redundant, replaced by suites which offer a selection of rooms. Pillow menus, bath menus, customised foods and personal staff such as a butler and a chef with rooms will also become more common. I believe price will be a relatively unimportant factor as the emphasis will be on the experiences received, " he says.

McNulty says tourism is changing in ways previously unimaginable.

"Who would have thought five years ago that people would be going on skiing holidays in Dubai? Or that there would be five underwater hotels under construction around the world? Stranger still is the fact that commercial space flight is soon to happen on a scheduled basis with Virgin Galactic already taking £10m in deposits last year. While these are the more outre trends, developments like customer profiling on travel websites are having a tangible effect on the hotel business. One site rates hotels on the quality of the air, which may seem a little obscure but when you consider the number of asthma sufferers and people with other breathing conditions, it becomes more of an issue for hoteliers."

McNulty believes that what tourists and travellers will want in future is likely to be quite different and it is up to the industry to try to get to grips with change.

"Irish hoteliers haven't shown a great deal of imagination so far in responding to new trends and it is time they started to do so. Asian and Middle Eastern hotel chains have been quicker to identify what people want and recently they have been opening hotels in Europe, the latest being in Paris. Hotels here are almost 100% Irish-owned but that is likely to change if businesses don't get to grips with the new environment."

Sue Wheldon of Douglas Wallace outlines what some of those trends might be.

"Sponsored bedrooms, specialist activity holidays and 'dark side' tourism are all burgeoning areas, " she says.

"Each room in the Block hotel in California, which caters for students and young people, is sponsored by some cool music or extreme sports company and this is part of a bigger trend for branded experiences. Bulgari, the jewellery firm, has its own hotel as does Volkswagen in Copenhagen and shoe company Camper in Barcelona. Football clubs have also capitalised on their pulling power and many Premiership teams like Chelsea and West Ham have hotels as part of their stadiums. I wonder could something similar happen at for example the Curragh? I also don't see any reason why Brown Thomas, Avoca or Guinness couldn't open branded hotels."

Aside from being branded, hotels are increasingly offering specialist activities like cookery courses, tango lessons and comedy clubs.

"Hotels have to be more attuned to changing demographics, " says Wheldon.

"For example, who caters for single parents or people with disabilities and their families? There is still a real shortage for these groups and it is something the industry should be more aware of."

Perhaps a less savoury development is dark side tourism, where tourists jaded from conventional holidays go to war-torn or disasterstruck areas.

"Remarkably, Chernobyl now gets over 30,000 visitors a year, " says Wheldon. "Nearer home, Belfast has become popular with people who want to see at first hand where the Troubles occurred."

On a slightly more uplifting note, Wheldon believes that hotel development, if done right, can not only boost tourism but transform whole cities and countries.