Hotel & Restaurant Times February / March 2019

FEBRUARY/MARCH’19

€3.65

T H E B U S I N E S S P U B L I C AT I O N F O R T H E H OT E L A N D R E S TAU R A N T I N D U S T R Y

Millimetre Design

Delivering Iconic Interiors

Get Tourism Ready Let's be prepared

GN Mulranny Park Location, location, location

Perfect Vision And how to make it happen www.hotelandrestauranttimes.ie

www.bunzlmclaughlin.com

Call: 015 337 300

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COVER: Millimetre Design, Café en Seine

Contents

Editorial 4 News

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Appointments 10 Bookassist

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Millimetre Design: Delivering Iconic Interiors

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Chef Network

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Getting Tourism Ready

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Shoes for Crews

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Spreading the Tourists

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Tourism Ireland

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A Question of Trust

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IFSA

The West's Awake: GN Mulranny Park Failte Industry News

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Guestline: Get Ready for Summer

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Perfect Vision

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Future Investment

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ITIC 46

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Hotel & Restaurant Times, Ireland’s longest established trade publication, is circulated on subscription to Chief Executives, Directors and Proprietors of Hotels and Restaurants in Ireland along with Architects, Interior Designers and Suppliers to the Hotel and Restaurant Industry.

Managing Editor: Cyril McAree (01-6285447, cyril@hotelandrestauranttimes.ie) Contributors: Pavel Barter, Susan Clarke, Chef Network, Tourism Ireland, Conor Power, Fáilte Ireland, Conor Kenny, Des O'Mahony Sarah Gallagher, Eoghan O’Mara Walsh, Frank Corr, IFSA. Graphic Design: Tara Mccormack Printing: Turners of Longford Online: Sarah Gallagher

ALL CONTENTS OF THE MAGAZINE ARE COPYRIGHT OF HOTEL & RESTAURANT TIMES. H&R HOUSE, CARTON COURT, MAYNOOTH, CO.KILDARE TEL/FAX: 01 6285447 EMAIL: editorial@hotelandrestauranttimes.ie WEB: www.hotelandrestauranttimes.ie

All paper used in the production of this magazine comes from certifiably sustainable forestry.

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editorial

Stormy weather ahead?

editorial

Visitor numbers to Ireland have been positive in recent times. The most recent figures indicated a 11.2 % growth for the month of January, which is impressive given the fears about Brexit. An extra 66,000 visitors came to the country in January over the same month in 2018.

Continued growth from the US and Canada - 12.3 %, representing a year-on-year increase of 11,500 extra tourists - is encouraging.

Mainland Europe showed a 12.2% growth over last year. Countries such as France, Germany, Spain and Italy, in particular, are performing well. Equally encouraging, and somewhat surprising given all the negativity about Brexit, were the numbers from Britain: visitors have increased by 10.4 %. To cap it off, Australia and emerging markets showed a 9.4 % increase.

It is, of course, early in the season. But comfort can be taken from these numbers. Tourism Ireland is hoping to achieve €6.5 billion additional tourism revenue for the island this year.

However, concern was voiced at the IHF conference in Killarney regarding a number of issues.

Businesses sentiment amongst IHF members has deteriorated significantly, according to the federation. Only 40% of hoteliers, who took part in an industry survey at the conference, indicated a positive outlook for the coming year.

Concerns for the sector include: the continued risk of a disruptive Brexit; reduced competitiveness due to the hike in tourism VAT; increases in the cost of doing business; and growing economic uncertainty internationally. The higher VAT rate, in particular, is putting investment in additional hotel capacity at risk. 75% of hoteliers say they are now reassessing plans to increase capital investment as a result of this VAT hike.

Business performance this year has been mixed. 39% of hoteliers report a drop in overall business levels, compared to this time last year, and 48% report an increase. Almost two thirds of hoteliers (65%) say advance bookings for 2019 from Great Britain are down; almost six in ten (57%) are seeing a fall in advance bookings from Northern Ireland.

There is a concern that the regions could be impacted the most. Michael Lennon, president of the Irish Hotels Federation, said that recent growth cannot be taken for granted. “With the prospect of a disruptive Brexit looming, the sharp fall in business sentiment amongst hoteliers is not surprising," he said. "Our fear is that regional tourism businesses risk being hardest hit, especially those operating in areas that are reliant on seasonal and UK markets.

Many of these regions have only begun to feel the benefits of economic recovery.”

He continued: “Tourism plays a vitally important role as an engine of growth and regional economic balance. However, this could be put at risk if the government does not take decisive action to mitigate the impact of Brexit and address the other serious challenges we now face, such as the high cost of doing business in Ireland.”

“Tourism is an exceptionally competitive activity. We compete daily for business at both a domestic and international level and every tourism Euro spent by overseas and domestic tourists in Ireland is hard won. Maintaining our competitiveness is vital to sustaining the growth of the industry, which supports jobs in every country and town.”

While the start of the year has shown positive signs, dark clouds may yet be on the horizon.

Cyril McAree editor

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news

NEWS Cabra Castle goes back to the future

Running up that hill Congratulations are due to the 4-star Hillgrove Hotel & Spa, Monaghan, which has been accredited by Fáilte Ireland for Excellence in Customer Service.

Future generations at Cabra Castle in County Cavan will be able to get a glimpse of life in 2019. To mark the completion of the final phase of the hotel’s €6m redevelopment project, the owners and staff at Cabra Castle have buried a time capsule.

The castle’s time capsule includes: a bottle of Tullamore Dew 12-year old Special Reserve Irish Whiskey, newspaper clippings, a handwritten recipe from Executive Chef Claire McEntegart, family photographs, the lyrics of Irish music, a personal handwritten letter from Mitzie Corscadden, the family matriarch and a longstanding veteran of the Irish hotel industry, and a picture of Cabra Castle’s own Irish Wolfhound Oscar VI.

Meaty discussions Dawn Meats Foodservice, a Division of Dawn Meats, which supplies restaurants, hotels and caterers in Ireland, has launched its Vintage Reserve range of dry aged beef at the recent Catex trade show. Dawn Meats team members are pictured (l-r): Anthony Smith; Louise Heslin; Neil Lanigan; Michael Russell; and Sean Daly.

Dublin sees red Eoin O’Leary, Ambassador of Ireland to the People’s Republic of China; Dr Yue Xiaoyong, Chinese Ambassador to Ireland; opera singer Neria Wang; Nial Ring, Lord Mayor of Dublin; and Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, are pictured at the illumination of The Mansion House in red for Chinese New Year.

Oranmore eaterie scoops best practice award Basilico Restaurant in Oranmore was awarded Just Ask Restaurant of the Month for February. Selected by renowned food writer Georgina Campbell and Bord Bia, the Just Ask Restaurant of the Month rewards eateries across Ireland that exhibit best practices in showing transparency in the sourcing of the food on their menus.

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news

Irish chef up against the world

Perfect Pear-ing at Druids Glen

JP McMahon, an Irish chef, recently cooked alongside 24 leading international chefs in Brussels, Belgium, in aid of Isabelo, Feeding Hungry Minds, a South-African project created by chef Margot Janse. “I am delighted to be taking part in this event. It is not only a privilege to cook alongside chefs I admire so much, but also to be raising money for the fantastic work that Margot is doing in South Africa,” said JP.

The five-star Druids Glen Hotel & Golf Resort has teamed up with their neighbours, The Happy Pear, to add a number of vegan dishes to their menus in the Garden Rooms and Bar. The team at Druids Glen, led by Executive Chef Anthony Duggan, have been working with Stephen and David Flynn of The Happy Pear for the past few months to develop the dishes, which are available daily from 10am to 10pm.

Poles apart The Metropole Hotel Cork has been named the Best Cork Hotel at the Cork Business of the Year Awards. “We are delighted and honoured to receive this award which acknowledges the exceptional dedication of the team at the hotel,” said Roger Russell, General Manager of the Metropole.

“We are looking forward to a very exciting and successful year ahead in our prime location in the Victorian Quarter”.

High five for Irish chefs To celebrate this year’s Good France (Gout de France) the French Embassy in Ireland has come together with the French and Irish Dairy Councils and the CFA Médéric École hôtelière de Paris to launch the second year of Dairy Chef 2019. A shortlist of five French and five Irish culinary students has been selected to attend the Cook Off, held this year at CFA Médéric in Paris on April 3, 2019.

Call for Donegal to tap into business tourism With the 7th Annual AIPCO Business Tourism Conference set to take place at Lough Eske Castle later this month, Fáilte Ireland has called on local tourism industry to secure their spot at the event and find out how they can tap into the lucrative business tourism market.

Fáilte Ireland is the headline sponsor of this year’s AIPCO Business Tourism Conference, which is a must-attend event for anyone involved in business tourism in Ireland and will see up to 200 delegates make their way to Donegal from Thursday 21 – Friday 22 March.

Having a ball Fitzgerald's Woodlands House Hotel and Spa, a four star property, is opening a new ballroom and grand exterior entrance, marking the final stage of a €1m refurbishment programme. Over the last 35 years, the Fitzgerald Family has hosted more than 5,000 marriage celebrations at their Adare-based hotel. Today, weddings account for 40% of overall turnover. The new ballroom is the final milestone in a three-year refurbishment programme, inspired by some of the most prestigious wedding venues in London and New York.

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news

Food safety award for Wicklow student The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) presented a Special Award to Rían Byrne, of Coláiste Cill Mhántáin in Co Wicklow, in the Biological and Ecological Junior Individual Category at the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition. It was selected from a total of 550 projects at the exhibition this year. “Rían’s project, Will (HMF) Levels in Honey Affect the Quality of Honey and Effects of the Honey on Human Health?, shows a level of innovation which was very deserving of this award," said Dr Pamela Byrne, Chief Executive, FSAI.

Out of the Boxty thinking

Sleep tight at Lough Eske

Gallagher’s Boxty House, situated in Temple Bar, Dublin, turns 30 this year.

The venue opened in February 1989, under the auspices of chef Pádraic Óg Gallagher. Gallagher, from Leitrim, had the idea for his restaurant while working in Caracas, Venezuela. Boxty - traditional Irish potato bread, made by mixing mashed potato with grated potato and flour - takes centre stage in the menu for this traditional Irish restaurant.

The five-star Lough Eske Castle, located just outside Donegal Town, has launched a new Sleep Retreat package, designed to promote the perfect night’s sleep. The package includes a Sleep Experience beauty pack from ESPA, which is part of the range of skincare brands in the hotel’s Cara Spa. Now in its eleventh year of business, Lough Eske Castle has announced a partnership with Magee 1866 tweed. It has introduced two new chefs in their kitchen, opened a new cellar bar, and its new Tower Suite.

Flying high

Future proof

Willie Walsh, Airline CEO, was honoured at the Irish Tourism Industry Awards, receiving the 2019 Special Recognition Award for his contribution to Irish tourism.

The Awards, organised by the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation (ITIC), Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland, gathered the ‘crème de la crème’ of the Irish tourism industry, announcing 15 winning companies as best in their category from 75 shortlisted finalists.

Country Crest and Ballymaguire Foods are future-proofing Ireland's culinary talent with an innovative partnership with TU Dublin. Pictured at the announcement were: Ed Spelman, Managing Director at Ballymaguire Foods; Michael Hoey, Managing Director of Country Crest; TU Dublin students, Erin McElwee and Isobel Maher; TU Dublin President, Professor David FitzPatrick; and Dr Frank Cullen, School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology.

Cork targets French tourists Pure Cork is launching a campaign in association with Tourism Ireland to encourage more French tourists to choose Cork as a destination. This is part of a wider strategy to extend the tourism season in the region.

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news

Marriages made in heaven Castleknock Hotel has been recognised for its excellent standards, having won the prestigious title of Hotel Venue of the Year (Leinster) at the annual Weddings Online Awards.

Prem Group invests €7.8 in Kerry hotel PREM Group is working on the latest renovation stage of Cahernane House Hotel in Killarney. The group purchased the hotel in 2016 has already spent over €6.5m on the property in a bid to return the luxury mansion house to its former glory. The initial renovation programme saw all the bedrooms in the original house being renovated, and the creation of a dining room which is now home to the 2 AA Rosette, Herbert Restaurant.

IHF Cork reveal results of annual Cork hotels survey A recent survey of Cork hoteliers, conducted by the Cork branch of the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF), has shown that more than €11.5m was spent on renovations and improvements to hotels in the region in 2018, with more than 80% investing in capital expenditure. Individual hotel upgrades ranged from €50k to €2.5 million. Local hoteliers spent a further €7.5m promoting Cork as a destination nationally and internationally: an increase of €2.5m from 2017.

Nordic drama Pictured are (l-r): are Peter Nash, Tourism Ireland; HE Clíona Manahan, Irish Ambassador to Denmark; Aileen Hickey, Tourism Ireland; Chris Lundshøj and Eimear Ryan, both Ryanair, at Tourism Ireland’s Nordic workshop in Copenhagen.

Wilder days The Wilder Hotel, located on Adelaide Road in Dublin 2, has received the 2018 Booking.com Guest Review Award. Built in 1878, the townhouse features 42 bedrooms. "We are thrilled to be awarded the Booking.com Guest Review Award 2018," said Brian Fahy, General Manager at The Wilder Townhouse. "We opened The Wilder Townhouse less than 12 months ago and it’s great to see the hard work, dedication and passion from the team rewarded."

Go west Best Western Hotels & Resorts has acquired global hotel brand WorldHotels, representing a collection of approximately 300 hotels and resorts in premier destinations. “There is tremendous synergy between Best Western and WorldHotels. By joining forces in this new partnership, we will create competitive advantages for both companies,” said David Kong, President and CEO of Best Western Hotels & Resorts.

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news

Visa-free travel drives increase in UAE visitors

The announcement of visa-free travel for Emiratis to Ireland in early 2018, a major travel company in the Middle East – dnata Travel – has experienced a +63.5% increase in year-on-year travel from the UAE to Ireland. A new report shows a +55% increase in travel arrangements to Ireland made within 14 days of travelling and a +9% increase in bookings made within three days of travel, indicating the benefit of visa restrictions being lifted.

Come fly with me Dublin was named Europe’s joint best airport in the 25m to 40m passenger category in the recent Airports Council International (ACI) World Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Awards. Dublin shared its category win with Oslo Gardermoen and Zurich airports.

Gearing up for Brexit Gunning for gin

Fáilte Ireland’s CEO Paul Kelly has addressed the Irish Hotel Federation’s Annual Conference in Killarney and used the opportunity to appeal to hotels and other tourism businesses to step up their efforts to diversify into newer markets ahead of Brexit. Fáilte Ireland is investing €5m this year for business supports to ensure the Irish tourism sector is product-ready and industry-ready ahead of the UK withdrawal from the EU.

Ashford Castle and Drumshanbo Gunpowder Gin have partnered to offer guests of Ashford Castle a Gin Tray Tasting experience. Hosted by Mr. Noli Alngohuro, guests can compare a selection of premium world gins and enjoy gin cocktails prepared using specially selected ingredients foraged from the Ashford Castle estate.

Into the wild

The Wilds in Enniscorthy has been awarded Just Ask Restaurant of the Month for March. Selected by renowned food writer Georgina Campbell and Bord Bia, the Just Ask Restaurant of the Month rewards eateries across Ireland that exhibit best practices in showing transparency in the sourcing of food on their menus. Set at the top of Weafer Street, Simon and Paula Nelson’s café has been wowing customers since it opened in 2015.

German travel professionals A Place for Visionaries explore Ireland Christian Ruebel, Tourism Ireland (standing, second right), with German travel agents, outside the Smithwick’s Experience Kilkenny.

Fáilte Ireland, the National Tourism Development Authority, and Coillte, Ireland’s largest commercial forestry company, have announced plans to redevelop Avondale House and Forest Park, in Co Wicklow, into a visitor attraction. A total of €8m will be invested in its redevelopment with Fáilte Ireland contributing more than €6.1m. Wicklow County Council is supporting the redevelopment, which will open in 2021.

Avondale House, once the home of Charles Stewart Parnell, is considered the birthplace of Irish Forestry. The 500-acre estate was originally built for Samuel Hayes in the 1700’s.

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appointments

Flynn's new star

The direct approach

Flynn Hotels has announced the appointment of Mandy Gabriel as Sales and Marketing Manager for The Imperial Hotel, Cork. Gabriel joins the team following the hotel’s investment of €400,000 in refurbishment upgrades in 2018. Gabriel previously worked with Kinsale Hotel and Spa as Sales and Marketing Director. Prior to this, she was Sales and Marketing Manager at the Rochestown Park Hotel, Clifden Station House and The Gleneagle Group, encompassing The Brehon, INEC and The Gleneagle.

iNua Hospitality is delighted to announce the appointment of career hospitality professional Chris Austin to the role of Group Operations Director across the hotel’s eight 4 and 5-star properties in Athlone, Cork, Killarney, Kilkenny, Limerick, Monaghan, Sligo and Tullamore. Austin joins iNua from Tifco Hotel Group where he was Regional Operations Manager for seven years. Prior to this, he worked as Director of Operations at The Shelbourne & Druid’s Glen Resort.

He has also held management roles in Ashford Castle, The Emirates Towers, Dubai and The Sandy Lane Hotel, Barbados.

Resourceful strategy Kathleen Linehan has joined Trigon Hotels as Strategic Director Of Human Resources. Kathleen previously held the role of HR/ER Manager with The Gleneagle Hotel Group. She has over 11 years experience in human resources, having worked in manufacturing and hospitality industries.

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Simply the best Vivienne Nyhan has been appointed International Development Director for Best Western Hotels & Resorts in their Ireland office, located on the Old Naas Road. Her role includes developing the BWHR portfolio consisting of 13 brands, into the Irish market. Nyhan previously held roles as National and Global Sales Manager for Ireland with Radisson Hotels and Sales & Marketing Manager at the Glenview Hotel & Leisure Club in County Wicklow.

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Bookassist

“Just In Case” Bookers and Soaring Cancellations

By Claire Sawier, Bernhard Böhm and Des O’Mahony

This is the first in a two-part feature on cancellation impacts and how to mitigate their impact.

Rising cancellations

Cancellations are an inevitable part of the hotel industry but they have soared in recent times and bring with them more headaches for hotel and revenue managers. Much of this rise in cancellations is fuelled by OTA booking cancellation rates, and some hotels we have consulted with cite over 50% cancellation rates today for bookings made through OTAs. In contrast, cancellation rates for direct bookings are significantly lower, although these rates too are rising for some hotels. Based on an analysis of hundreds of thousands of direct bookings across all of our markets, cancellation rates for direct bookings now stand at an average of 12% as of March 2019, and have been noticeably rising since the beginning of 2017.

The cancelation rate varies with lead-in time, but more on this later.

Huge variation across hotels

Cancellation rates vary a lot between hotels, and this is significantly impacted by the strategy that the hotel employs.

Hotels that adopt a robust direct booking strategy tend to experience less cancellations across the board and experience a far more profitable bottom line since they more actively control distribution and therefore exposure to OTAs. This is in contrast to more passive hotels, some of whom do nothing even on the hottest high-demand dates, and others who deal only tactically with the impact of cancellations rather than working actively on reducing them. Direct booking cancellation rates in these cases can exceed 30%.

Why do bookers cancel?

Getting to the heart of the problem is not simple, and attitudes to booking and customer commitment to booking have

certainly changed online. On the whole, bookers cancel for one of three reasons: 1. They found a better deal in another hotel 2. They found a better deal for your hotel elsewhere 3. They have a genuine reason for not travelling Of these reasons, hotels should be adopting strategic approaches to mitigating the first 2, which they can directly influence.

OTA practices influencing cancellations

OTAs promote competition based on price and are particularly useful for people looking for a location rather than a specific hotel. There’s nothing wrong with this, OTAs provide a vital service to hotels in furthering a hotel’s reach into markets it cannot normally or easily tap into.

However, OTAs are increasingly encouraging bookers to actually book multiple hotels in a destination well in advance and then make their final choice later, with no-penalty cancellations. These “casual” bookers are higher up the sales funnel and are not so sure of their plans. The planning phase is therefore morphing into a “just in case” booking phase with a knock-on impact on those ultimately delivering the service fulfilment - hotels.

Pressure-selling tactics such as “one room left at this price” and “booked 4 times in the last 24 hours” are also routinely used to create a sense of urgency further pushing people to book before they are ready. (Tellingly, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority CMA has just recently clamped down on these practices as well as misleading discount claims. Offending OTAs have until September 1st to make changes). Figure 1 for example shows seven different pressure-selling tactics in use in a single hotel listing for a Dublin hotel, two of which emphasise the ease of cancelation.

Figure 1 OTAs using pressure-selling tactics in their listings. In this case, at least 7 examples of pushing for early booking, including phrases such as “see our last available rooms” as distinct from just “see our rooms”, and two statements, 5 and 6, relating to free cancelations.

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Bookassist

The OTA of course doesn’t mind that you book many and cancel most, since they will still receive their fee for the one booking that is finally chosen. However all the hotels bar one that are provisionally booked in this “just in case” approach are now left with some real problems.

It is possible, especially in high occupancy markets, that rooms being held for this “just in case” booker are now not available for sale to a genuine booker (direct or indirect), leading to real loss of business in the long term.

In today’s world therefore, there is a clear difference for hotels between receiving an OTA booking and actual intent to stay. Bookers are increasingly “just in case” bookers and your chance of them actually staying is only as good as all the other hotels the OTA customer has also booked. Follow on alerts from the OTA notifying the booker of price drops encourages them to cancel their original booking and rebook at the lower rate, and so the situation worsens.

Risk Free Reservations and Cancellation Parity In an effort to push the early booking strategy Booking. com introduced Risk Free Reservations for hotels in 2018.

Hotels that participate see their advance purchase rates effectively turned into free cancellation rates for bookers with Booking.com guaranteeing the hotel another guest or the price of the room in the event of a cancellation.

Figure 2 Bookassist data on direct booking cancellation rates versus lead-in time across hundreds of thousands of bookings in multiple markets back to January 2018. The further out a booking is made, the more likely it is to be cancelled.

Customers see the same rate on Booking.com and the hotel website but with different conditions that favour booking on Booking.com. With free cancellations being offered, cancellations will again increase with more and more people being encouraged to book multiple hotels for the same date. Booking.com carry all cancellation risks as it usually results in a confirmed booking for another hotel on their platform.

However, cancellations of direct bookings on the hotel website will increase too as bookers cancel their direct booking in favour of the better free cancellation rate on Booking.com.

In our view as hotel partners encouraging higher-profit direct bookings for our client hotels, Booking.com’s Risk Free Reservations should be a clear NO for any hotelier who wants to grow their overall business. The only place a customer should ever be able to get the best deal should be “hotel direct”. What’s clear is that rate parity in itself is not enough to facilitate this. Cancellation Parity is becoming just as important as customers look for more booking flexibility. Imposing more restrictive cancellation policies on OTAs is just the starting point.

Watch those early bookers

From our own data analysing hundreds of thousands of direct bookings we can see that the closer to arrival date the booking is made, the smaller the risk of cancellation and the further away the greater the risk of cancellation (see figure 2).

In fact, one third of all cancellations occur within a week of the arrival date, and half of these bookings are cancelled two days or less before arrival (see figure 3). Interestingly almost half of those who cancelled two days or less before arrival time had booked with a lead-in of more than one month. Watch those early bookers.

Figure 3 Bookassist data on how soon before arrival that direct bookings tend to be cancelled based on data since January 2018.

Given this direct booking data, what about OTA behaviour? The question here for hotels is: how much of your inventory is now tied up

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Bookassist with “just in case” OTA bookers, many of which will go on to cancel, leaving you with a narrow window for sales recovery?

How far out are your OTA bookers booking and how close to arrival are they cancelling? It is critical to have a handle on these figures in your business so that you can formulate an action plan.

Impact of Cancellations

In our experience, hoteliers often fail to calculate the true cost of cancellations when analysing their distribution per channel costs. Cancellation costs not only include the loss of revenue when it is not possible to resell that room for the same price but also: (a) the operational costs of processing volumes of bookings that go on to be cancelled, and the operational costs of processing the cancelations themselves; (b) additional distribution costs associated with sales efforts that become void, and (c) the wasted initial cost of acquisition to include digital marketing spend and website costs for example in the case of a cancelled direct booking that resulted in a subsequent indirect OTA booking.

Even a compensated cancelled booking via Booking.com’s risk free reservations program brings costs in terms of an empty room that could be have been generating F&B income, or could have attracted a higher margin direct booker.

There is far more to a cancelled booking than the loss of the room itself and hotels need to be very mindful of the total cost per cancelation just as they need to be fully aware of cost per acquisition for successful bookings. Proper analysis is the starting point for risk mitigation.

Losing a direct booker to an OTA has long term implications

No hotelier wants to see a confirmed direct booking being switched to an OTA booking, but unfortunately it happens.

But this situation is for the most part avoidable. An astute revenue manager or direct booking partner such as Bookassist will help to address any of the issues that may lead bookers to switch from direct booking to indirect booking.

You are already on the back foot when a direct booker cancels only to book instead via an OTA. They may have already concluded (perhaps correctly, but hopefully incorrectly!) that the OTA brings them better value so will be less inclined to go back to the hotel website if booking again.

Furthermore, the minute an OTA booker checks out of your hotel, the OTA sends them emails suggesting other locations or hotels, as well as offers. They own the customer, and unless your hotel has a robust process in place to capture and inform that customer before checkout then they will most likely be lost to the OTA if they decide to come back again.

Why? Because there may be no reason for them not to go back to the OTA – unless you give them a reason.

OTAs build tight connections with their customers and so to compete effectively and be more resilient to cancellations hotels need to develop closer ties with their bookers well before arrival to ensure they are not tempted away by an OTA. You risk losing the life time value of a customer by losing them to an OTA, so it is key to push your direct booking benefits at every opportunity.

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Know your data

Profitable hotels are the ones that know exactly where their customers come from, how far out they book and how many will end of cancelling. They also know why bookers cancel. Knowing why people cancel and when they cancel is essential in order to put in place effective cancellation, rate and overbooking policies. No two hotels are the same and cancellation trends can vary a lot across hotels. The key is to know your own data. If you don’t, you can’t even begin to address the issue.

Seizing opportunities - Guests who book on mobile devices tend to cancel less

According to Booking.com, guests who book on mobile devices tend to cancel less. With more and more bookings now being made on mobile a good user experience on mobile is therefore paramount. If your hotel fails to offer a fast feature-rich mobile experience, you may be raising barriers to getting the booking even though that booker may want to book direct.

Targeting mobile transactions is the single best thing that a hotel can do to improve its direct booking business and be prepared for the future. While desktop may drive more revenue now, traffic on mobile has now exceeded desktop traffic for hotels, giving you opportunity to capitalise on growing levels of mobile transactions. Alternatively, not addressing mobile is lost opportunity today, and increasingly into the future.

For example, Bookassist’s next generation V10 Mobile platform is an entirely new mobile-first booking platform delivering a truly engaging, super fast, touch-optimised mobile experience. It offers a full-feature app-like user experience that fully exploits the mobile opportunity for hotels right now, and positions them for the future. It has already proven to increase mobile conversion as well as average booking value for participating hotels.

Bottom Line

Hotels should pay much more attention to cancellation rates and their subsequent effects. Rather than accept the issue of rising cancellations and only tactically adjust operations to cope with them, hotels need to focus more on why they happen and strategically adjust for long term business success.

Conversion rates for sales channels need to be considered alongside cancellation rates and not in isolation. Hotels that adopt a strong direct booking strategy and professional mobile presence experience a far lower rate of cancellations and therefore a far more profitable bottom line.

Part 2 of this article will focus on actual tactics that hotels can use to address the issue of cancellations in their hotel. Visit our blog on bookassist.com to share your ideas and experiences and we will share them in our follow up article on cancellations.

Claire Sawier is Head of Marketing, Bernhard Böhm is Product R&D Officer and Des O’Mahony is CEO and Founder at Bookassist, (bookassist.com), the multi-award-winning technology and digital strategy partner for hotels worldwide.

https://partnerhelp.booking.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000379949 https://bookassist.org/news/article/average-booking-value-abv-increase-achieved-using-v10-mobile/en/

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Design

Delivering Iconic Interiors Dublin-based design studio, Millimetre Design,

has just completed the refurbishment of one of Ireland’s most iconic venues, Café en Seine. The transformation is stunning and is complemented by Millimetre’s redesign of the venue’s logo, signage and printed menus. Ronan Holohan, Managing Director of Millimetre Design, told us more about this renovation, the evolution of this innovative design house and he discussed some of the other projects they are involved in.

“Café en Seine hadn’t been renovated in 26 years so we began by looking at where the business could go. The late-night bar business has changed so much and large sections of the venue were not used for the majority of the week. It was a very dark bar and it wasn’t known as a day-time venue. So, working with the client we developed a whole new concept centered around the venue being more food orientated, a venue for casual coffee, meetings and maximizing the venue’s potential revenue”.

Café en Seine, Dublin H&RT FEBRUARY/MARCH 2019

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Design

The space at the venue has been completely re-imagined to ensure it caters for maximizing the customer experience.

Everything from the venue layout, to the food offering to the drinks service, the uniforms, as well as the music, all have the customer in mind.

Ronan explains, “It is a really long venue so we opened it up at the back and developed an entrance at Anne’s Lane via South Anne Street. We based the concept for this area on a Parisian street and we added a retractable glass roof which has opened up the building in terms of light and space”.

Accessing the new Café en Seine from Anne’s Lane, customers enter the venue into the Parisian inspired, indoor street garden, complete with traditional stone facades, faux shop fronts and 7-metre high trees. The 11-metre high space features a retractable roof that can be opened during hot, sunny days. The area is multifunctional, allowing customers to enjoy a casual dining experience during the day and a lively bar space at night.

Another significant change in the venue has been the complete redesign of the main Dawson Street entrance.

To address the issue of poor kerb appeal, the design team created beautiful new terrace and foyer spaces.

The existing double doors were replaced with bi-folding doors to create a new large covered, heated terrace area.

Attractive awnings and contemporary signage create a very ‘French” and very stylish first impression.

“We re-designed the menus, the uniforms, as well as the flow and movement throughout the space. Every aspect of the physical environment is considered in our designs. We are a design studio first and foremost, offering a lot more than an interior architect/interior design specialist can. In 2011 we brought in a full-time graphic designer and we have grown that team and that aspect of our business ever since. The link between brand and interiors is an essential part of what we do”.

“

We based the concept for this area on a Parisian street and we added a retractable glass roof which has opened up the building in terms of light and space

Café en Seine, Dublin

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Design

CafĂŠ en Seine, Dublin

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17

Design

The new design at Café en Seine, features several dining experiences along with a host of bars and bespoke event areas. Each area has been designed with incredible flair and with supreme attention to detail. Each area is jam packed with bespoke design features. There is so much to take in, so much so, several visits might be needed in order to fully appreciate all the detailed finishes!

However, it the customer experience that Ronan believes is what brings customers back to a venue. “People will remember the experience they had in a venue and that’s what will bring them back. So, we focus on, what people will perceive when they first walk into a space and the experience they will have. For example, in hotels now, the big foyer is gone, the boardroom is gone. People are having more casual meetings, afternoon tea. The foyer, bar, casual eating experience are all linked now.

I believe the industry has to continually invest in the customer experience and getting the design of the physical environment right for their target audience is crucial.”

Powerscourt Hotel, Wicklow

Millimetre Design are currently working on a variety of exciting projects throughout the hotel and restaurant sector including; a distillery at Powerscourt, a coffee shop in the Centre Parcs Holiday Village in Longford, an extension to The Spencer Hotel, a re-branding of the Butler Pantry range as well as a number of other hotel, spa and eatery projects.

Chopped, Smithfield

However, if creative, innovative design is crucial to creating the right customer experience, equally so is delivery and Millimetre Design have more than proven their ability over the last fourteen years, in this regard. “I believe there are lots of people out there creating good design but do they deliver? We are experts in the delivery of design and brand innovation for our customers and we are leaders in delivering hospitality brand experiences”.

Some of the many design highlights in the Café en Seine refurbishment include; the commissioned mural to the existing chimney breast in the Foyer, the mosaic floor, the marble fireplace and fine art feature wall, all in the Terrace area. The library, complete with bespoke furniture and a stock of hardbacks sitting on solid oak book shelves, with statutes above, is luxurious and atmospheric. The original mosaic ceiling, in the Grand Bar, is truly magnificent. It has been restored and embellished with oversized pendants and complimentary LED lighting. It makes a breathtaking backdrop to the new décor and the stunning Art Deco bar and back bar.

The Westin, Dublin

Millimetre Design is a dynamic design house vying to create innovative brands and interiors that compare with the very best in the industry worldwide.

Trinity City Hotel, Dublin 18

H&RT FEBRUARY/MARCH 2019

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19

Chef Network

KITCHEN CULTURE Meet the chefs & teams of Ireland’s professional kitchens, with Chef Network The Chef Network community brings together chefs at all levels from all sectors across Ireland. In a Hotel & Restaurant Times regular column we will meet some of those members and hear from them what inspires and motivates them, their career challenges and opportunities, and how they believe we can improve the industry.

In this edition, we meet Ludovic Lantier, Executive Chef at The Butler’s Pantry

Why did you become a Chef?

Following that I joined the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Group. I started in the Powerscourt hotel and later had the opportunity to work in their Tenerife and Bahrain hotels. While working in Bahrain I was luck enough to be a part of the opening and promotions teams for some of their other hotels in Osaka, Austria and Israel. I’ve had a lot of mentors throughout my journey who have helped bring me to where I am today, however one in particular stands out for me, Adam Thomas our Executive Pastry Chef at the Ritz Carlton Group.

Adam was more than just a boss, he was a friend. He taught me so much and gave me a love for chocolate. He is a fantastic artist with his plating techniques and showed me that when you work in a hotel there are no limits to the creativity you can have with pastry.

Most recently, with the birth of my son I have moved back to Ireland, his Irish mum wanted to come home, so we made the decision the move back and I am finally settled in The Butler’s Pantry as Executive Chef.

What was your path to where you are today?

Tell us about the team you work with

My love of food started at an early age, growing up in Normandy, France watching my grandmothers, grandaunt and my own mum cooking. They cooked with love and enjoyed how it made the family happy; it inspired me to learn to cook. My grandaunt has been in the kitchen since she was 12 years old, she cooked for the family. She used to always say ‘while you are here, I do not eat, I only drink’ and she would stand there as we enjoyed the food she made with a glass of champagne in her hand. She always felt that you give to people by cooking and I think that is where my love of cooking came from.

My grandfather was a fisherman, which meant that my grandmother was a good cook. She would use whatever my grandfather had caught that day to make dinner for the family.

The dishes she made were simple, but they were good. I’ve been around good memories of food all my life, I think this is why I love food so much.

I left home at the age of 17, where I went on to work at different Michelin Star Restaurants such as L’auberge de Fond Rose (1 Michelin star) and Troisgros (3 Michelin Star). I was offered a position to work at Troisgros when I was quite young. I didn’t ask what the position was, I just wanted to work in the kitchen, so I took whatever was going at the time. When I started, I found out that I would be working in the pastry section. This is where my love of pastry came to be. Every kitchen I went into I ended up in the pastry section, one way or another that’s where I would be.

I loved it, I believe there’s much more freedom in pastry, more creativity with the dishes you create.

After spending some time in St. Barts where I worked as a Pastry Chef in Eden Rock, I came to Dublin to visit some friends. I was eager to improve my pastry skills and my English and so I ended up staying here. I worked in Bon Appetit restaurant in Malahide where I was part of the team who gained a Michelin Star.

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We are very lucky to have a hard-working, fun bunch here at The Butler’s Pantry. I think it’s very important to understand the people on your team, treat everyone fairly and equally, this will inevitably bring value to your business as a whole and you’ll get the most out of your team. I like to do small things to bring a little boost to the team when they’re not expecting it. We try to make sure that we’re flexible for everyone in the team, we also have rules that we all follow in the kitchen; for example, no shouting is allowed, we don’t want any negativity when we’re working. We like to keep things light and have a bit of craic too.

We want to deliver the best and bring the team to the next level. If you give compassion and respect to your team, they will give it back. I’ve worked in kitchens in the past where you felt uncomfortable asking for days off, kid’s holidays, things like this. I don’t play like that. I want to make people feel comfortable.

Chef Network

“

There are no limits to the creativity you can have with pastry

"

We like to bring the team together for activities outside of work. Sometimes we go for team lunches on a Saturday. We’re mad about salads at the moment, so we went out for lunch looking for what the best salad offers around were. I think it brings an element of fun to it.

How can chefs create a positive culture in their kitchen or business?

In the kitchen you need to have pride in your work, no matter how “menial” the task may be. Positivity is contagious, if you are not a positive manager and mentor then how do you expect your staff to be.

Don’t be afraid to challenge your team, give them the freedom to create but push them to see what they’re capable of. Give them a chance. I try to give my best to the team, in whatever they need.

In terms of business, a positive attitude brings results, being open to other people’s point of view. Treating everyone on the team with respect, being patient and open minded all contribute to creating a positive atmosphere that people want to work in.

What do you think are some of the differences in food culture between France and Ireland?

Wow, that’s a big question. I think in France the culture is different towards food. Similarly, to Italy food is a big deal in France. I have to say though I am very impressed by the Bistro food on offer in small villages throughout Ireland. I have seen a slow rise in an appreciation of finer things from the Irish people, they want healthier options, more than what’s out there. They want to know ingredients are fresh, which is exactly what we strive to give them at The Butler’s Pantry.

I was speaking with a chef recently who shared that he doesn’t believe Ireland is ready for a change, ‘bring them the flavours that they are used to’ he said to me.

But there are so many good flavours out there. We’re looking to help encourage this want for freshness by producing classic combination of pastries with a modern twist, I’m sure it will be a success. The food scene in Ireland is only going to get better and better.

BEING A CHEF….

What I love most is… the smile on a customer’s face when they taste our food.

What makes me most proud is… a fully functioning happy team and great customer feedback.

I have learned that…a good work life balance is a goal we should all strive for.

We can create a better workplace by…. Continuously mentoring and guiding our colleagues and making them part of the overall goals of the company.

One small change we can make our businesses better by… sharing ideas.

My advice to chefs starting out is… travel the world and experience different cultures, cooking methods and recipes.

My advice to chefs trying to progress their career is…find your niche and be the best at that and learn from the masters.

My favourite job ever… Working with Japanese Chefs in Osaka was an amazing experience. I was inspired by the culture and work ethic.

How to keep or attract staff… To keep staff, check in with them on a regular basis, listen and involve them.

My favourite place to eat… In Dublin it would be Mr Fox. In Osaka it was Hanagatami.

“

In the kitchen you need to have pride in your work

"

Chefs and Employers, have you seen our Kitchen Workplace Charter?

Visit www.chefnetwork.ie today to download your copy and find out how you can be part of creating a positive Kitchen Culture.

Share your support & progress with us online #KitchenCulture

Making our Industry Better, Together.

Join CHEF NETWORK free today at www.chefnetwork.ie to connect, communicate and collaborate with your chef community H&RT FEBRUARY/MARCH 2019

21

fáilte interview

Getting Tourism Ready Fáilte Ireland, she says, has been planning for Brexit for the past two years developing and continually updating a suite of supports for businesses in the sector.

These supports focus on four key areas: - Training and Business Supports; - Market Diversification; - Competitiveness; - Retaining UK Market Share.

In addition, Fáilte Ireland’s programme for recovery is called the Brexit Response Programme which, is focussed on sustaining the sectors success in the face of the key challenge of Brexit.

This ambitious programme involves: - A Northern Ireland Marketing Focus - A Sales Optimisation Programme - Market Diversification Skills and Insights - Great Britain Market Retention Supply - Competitiveness and Value for Money

As Britain careers towards the cliff edge like an out-of-control vehicle in “The Italian Job”, Fáilte Ireland is busily getting on with the task of preparing for the consequences that may result from the exit of Britain from the EU on March 29th as well as the consequences that are already being felt.

2018 was a record year for Irish tourism, with the total number of tourists increasing by 6.9% to 10.6 million visitors. The rising tide raised all the boats but in our biggest market – Great Britain – the increase was a very meagre 0.8% The reasons why have been spelled out to us over and over again on news bulletins, tweets and newspaper reports. The B-word has had a negative impact on the strength of Sterling against the Euro, it has created a huge aura of economic and social uncertainty.

The state of confusion and anxiety is such that one might be sorely tempted to compare this state of affairs with the likes of the infamous “Millennium Bug” that was due to shut down all computer systems in 2000 and, for those who still remember it, the final breakaway of the Punt from Sterling in 1979. In both of those cases, catastrophic scenarios were presented to us in three dimensions but when it all happened, the problems turned out to be either very mundane and solvable or they didn’t exist at all.

Martina Kerr Bromley – Head of Operations, Enterprise and Hospitality at the National Tourism Development Authority – is tasked with leading the charge in dealing with the current consequences on the ground and preparing the tourism industry for the unknown challenges that are just around the corner.

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This is all very necessary and worthwhile in its intent but how effective is it going to be in the face of this unknown quantity? Will it be a major flood or a tsunami? Nobody has any clear idea, even at this late point and one fears that efforts like these may be akin to the famous fictional Dutch boy who stuck his finger in the dyke in an effort to prevent catastrophe befalling his nation.

“Yes, the Fáilte Ireland view is that we are facing a very serious situation.

Our research is saying that Brexit is the number 1 concern of the industry alongside the volatility of Sterling.

“We would have to say that from our engagement with industry and from working very closely with them, that certainly the border counties are experiencing that double whammy (market share loss and currency fluctuation) – not only are they experiencing it in the coach touring business from Britain, but also from the Northern Ireland leisure market. The decrease in the value of Sterling has had a big impact right across the board, from the Hotel Federation groups around Donegal and Sligo too as far as Cavan and Monaghan.

“We’re hearing the same worry and concern around the Sterling currency devaluation problem and the drop-off in numbers arriving in coach tours.

In a lot of those border counties, industry is telling us that they’re losing anything from 20-30% of the Northern Ireland leisure business. That’s very substantial and within that sector, one of the core segments is the wedding business and that has been decimated in many areas.”

These, she says, are often hotel businesses that are dependent on a healthy trade in wedding clients from over the border, where they’ve seen their numbers fall from about 200 weddings a year down to 120.

From constantly gathering insights and data with regard to the border counties in particular, Martina says that Fáilte Ireland are working on Brexit collectively across the organisation – from the Marketing Department to the Commercial Development Division – the approach is to ensure that there is a strong response that includes business supports, business opportunities and

fáilte interview a marketing campaign for Northern Ireland, as well as tactical work with new buyers and markets to drive sales to those businesses that are being impacted by Brexit.

“So it’s very tangible in terms of the border counties and the focus there. But even when we move around the country and talk to businesses in the likes of Wexford and Cork, there is a lot of worry and unease in the industry amongst people in those areas as well, with lots of businesses who are dependent on appealing to and attracting many clients from Great Britain. The British are the most regionally dispersed of our overseas tourists and of all the overseas markets, Britain has the best seasonal spread.

“They’re talking about not only direct sales but also of a general substantial drop-off through the OTAs (Online Travel Agents) and online bookings from the British market.”

Apart from those who can display with some degree of tangible measurement just what the negative impact of the British exit means, there are many more businesses who feel that Brexit is already affecting their business and who are deeply concerned that it will continue to do for the foreseeable future.

Fáilte Ireland has also dovetailed into the “Get Ireland Brexit Ready” event that involved roadshows going around the country to measure the pulse of both the mood of industry players and the extent of the potential problem on its way.

“Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland played a very big role within those roadshows and workshops with over 500 industry attending,” says Martina, “which has helped to shape our response. In addition, Fáilte Ireland established a Brexit Advisory Group which is made up of key business leaders and sectorial heads who are involved in shaping the direction and focus of Fáilte Ireland’s Brexit response.”

In terms of market diversification, there seems to be a lot yet to do that points towards a language deficit. Our biggest market is the UK market but after that, there is a big bias in favour of the North American sector. Visitors from France, for example, represent a similar percentage of their overall population (0.8%) yet the numbers of flight and ferry connections are far greater between Ireland and our nearest EU neighbour. The French market was amongst the poorer performing sectors in a positive year with a 2.7% increase in tourists from 2017. What measures are being taken to help our industry diversify in what is an overwhelmingly Englishspeaking tourism offer?

“Ireland as a premium tourism destination would be very well advanced in terms of the skills of industry,” says Martina, pointing out the successfully levels of engagement at Meitheal and other international buyers’ events run by Fáilte

Ireland. “Under the Brexit banner, we’ve expanded that out to newer and emerging markets such as China and India.”

Martina explains that under a China-Ready Programme last year, 350 businesses in Ireland benefitted from a course in welcoming Chinese visitors, learning about their food tastes and dietary requirements and cultural nuances. This, she said, received strong positive feedback from hotels involved, many of whom were eager to make the most of the new direct air links to China.

Another area where Fáilte Ireland have been active in encouraging market diversification is in examining existing markets to find special interest groups and packages that they might not have considered before; finding new niches within ‘old’ markets – from luxury to weddings and conferences and special interest activities.

“One thing we also do with market diversification is that we end up giving companies not only the insights and research around those markets but also the skill set around how to deal with direct business but also dealing with the OTAs.” As for competitiveness, it’s an area in which they now have to contend with a sudden jump in VAT that was enforced by a Government clearly not on the same page in getting the tourism industry Brexit-ready.

Martina says that the Brexit response programme has been aiming to make the best of the situation and concentrate on offering the best possible value for tourists: Along with market diversification, she says, competitiveness and value for money represents one of the main pillars of the programme; the third pillar being all about retention of the GB market share.

“Ireland would never be known as a cheap destination,” says Martina.

“But interestingly enough, the latest research has shown again that the satisfaction levels amongst visitors is extremely high. When you look at the pricing and expense involved for the average tourist, you’d have to conclude that people are happy with what they pay for as a whole – with the product, service and experience that they’re getting for that price.”

This research covers the 2018 period and not the period since the Government slapped an additional tax on tourists in the form of a VAT increase.

“We’d also encourage those working in the tourism industry to go on to the Fáilte Ireland website and click on the ‘Get Brexit Ready’ pages. All of the research, insights and market segmentation and the programmes we deliver are all on there. There’s also a Brexit Readiness Check so that you can assess what your position is in terms of your Brexit readiness and you can see any areas you might have to work on…

To date, we’ve had about 28,000 visits to the Brexit website and our dedicated Brexit Respose Team in Fáilte Ireland, manager Helen McDaid, Marion O’Connor and Rachel Doherty are available to discuss any concerns businesses may have and can be contacted by telephone on 1800 242 473 or by email at getbrexitready@failteireland.ie”

H&RT FEBRUARY/MARCH 2019

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25

Regionality?

Spreading the Tourists

Frank Corr on the perennial problem of Regionality Does anyone remember ‘Shannonside’, or ‘Lakelands’ or even ‘Dublin’s Doorstep’ ?

They are all once-novel, but now abandoned , Irish regional tourism brands which have given way to the ‘Wild Atlantic Way’, ‘Ireland’s Ancient East’ and most recently, ‘Ireland’s Hidden Heartland’.

Each and every one if these, and many other tourism regional brands, have been devised to solve the perennial problem of Regionality- the preference of tourists to spend their time in Ireland visiting the capital city, or other marquee destinations like Killarney, Galway and the Cliffs of Moher.

It is a dilemma shared by almost all tourist destinations in the world. How France would like to divert visitors from the jam-packed banks of the Seine in Paris, Italy would love visitors to flock to the Mezzogiorno or Spain would delight in its visitors discovering La Mancha rather than the Costa del Sol. Ireland is a small country, and persuading visitors to travel around the island rather than stay put in Dublin, should be a relatively easy task. Time and experience have proven however that such is not the case. In 2017 Dublin had just short of six million overseas visitors generating some €2bn. in revenue while the Midlands region attracted just 218,000 visitors generating a mere €85m. Th South West region was second best with 2.4m visitors and €968m revenue, followed closely by the West (1.9m/€649m) and the Mid West (1.38m/€444m). These figures reveal the wide gap between Dublin and the rest of the country in visitor terms and also partly explain why Dublin hotels are enjoying unprecedented occupancy levels and room rates, while some regional hotels have yet to recover from the disaster of 2008.

And while rooms remain empty in places like Leitrim, Monaghan, Cavan and Offaly even in the peak season, many of our top tourism attractions like the Guinness Storehouse, Trinity College, the Cliffs of Moher and the Ring of Kerry are operating very close to peak capacity during the Summer months.

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The Wild Atlantic Way has been a major success story Over the years Bord Fáilte and Fáilte Ireland have responded to the regionality issue with a series of brands designed to highlight the attractions of regions and towns. Few of these passed the test of time and they have now been replaced with three ‘Experience Brands’, which sell the special attractions of the areas they cover. A new feature of this latest branding exercise is that it seeks to appeal on the basis of linked attractions spread over a wide geographical space, rather than a collection of Counties.

The first, and so far most successful ‘Experience Brand’ is the ‘Wild Atlantic Way’, a coastal driving route from Cork to Donegal, which has captured the imagination of motoring visitors and has certainly attracted a considerable volume of new business to accommodation, food and activity providers along its route. Fáilte Ireland is now proposing to extend WAW inland at certain points in order to woo motorists and cyclists to places like Limerick.

Hopefully this strategy will not dilute the attractions of WAW as a coastal driving experience.

The Wild Atlantic Way has existed since time immemorial, but branding it as a world-class driving route, improving signage and identifying prime visitor spots along the way, has proven to be a clever and successful marketing exercise. From its inception however the route has been viewed with some envy by inlandbased tourism interests. The Fáilte Ireland response has been ‘Ireland’s Ancient East’, an area covering a massive swathe of the country stretching from East Cork to Monaghan (but excluding Dublin), bound together by their ‘stories’ of historic sites, heritage towns, artistic and cultural centres. The concept is certainly a harder sell than WAW, as there is no clear route through or around IAE with the visitor invited to seek out attractions which have a personal appeal. Only time will tell if this exercise in ‘experience branding’ will divert visitors from existing tourism ‘hot spots’.

Regionality?

Extending WAW inland and taking a liberal view of what constitutes ‘Ireland’s East’ still left part of the country unbranded and this final piece of the jigsaw has now emerged as ‘Ireland’s Hidden Heartland’- a long strip of land bordering the Shannon River. Here the marketing emphasis will be on activity with a particular emphasis on water sports. Promoting our longest and most lordly river as a visitor destination certainly makes sense and there are many precedents including the Loire in France, Rhine in Germany and Danube in Austria and Hungary. The Shannon has much to offer both on its lakes and river-side roads and has the potential to become a ‘go to’ destination. The only wonder is that the actual title of the river does not feature in the ‘Ireland’s Hidden Heartland’ brand name.

All of this ‘Experience’ branding has limited potential.

Because of their existing attractions, it is unlikely that Dublin, South West (Cork/Kerry), Mid West (Limerick/Clare) and West (Galway/Connemara) are going to lose significant market share, while the challenge of growing tourism across wide stretches of the midlands and North West will always be formidable. It is also worth remembering that the ‘Experience Brands’ are directed principally at holidaymakers and are unlikely to influence the business and conference markets in which Dublin and to a lesser extent, the main cities, dominate.

The ‘Experience Brands’ also have a secondary objective of improving the seasonal imbalance of visitor arrivals.

At present, about half of all visitors arrive between May and the end of September, with just 18% visiting in the first quarter of the year and 23% in the final quarter. If motorists can be attracted to drive the Wild Atlantic Way in challenging Winter months, the ‘culturally curious’ can be enticed to seek out Ancient East stories in Spring or Autumn and compelling activities emerge throughout Ireland’s Hidden Heartland in the shoulder and low seasons, the

Athy has many stories within Ireland’s Ancient East

brands may well help even out some of the peaks and valleys in visitor arrivals. Once again however, they will have little influence on business and convention tourism which tends to be year-round.

A final thought- for more than a millennium, Ireland has had four regions which have a distinct geography, history, heritage and culture. They were once autonomous and even to-day pride themselves in their sporting, cultural and even business achievements. Each has its own compelling visitor attractions and , thanks to rugby and other sports, their names enjoy wide international recognition.

So what would be wrong about four tourism ‘Experience Brands’ called Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connaught ?

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tourism ireland

Tourism Ireland announces Global Greening line-up for St Patrick’s Day 2019 Victoria Falls, York’s medieval City Walls, the Eden Project in Cornwall, Nation Towers in Abu Dhabi, the Château de Beaulieu on the banks of the Loire and the Shizuoka Stadium ECOPA in Japan, where Ireland will play Japan in the Rugby World Cup in September, will join Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening initiative for the first time in 2019. Tourism Ireland has announced details of some of the famous attractions and sites around the world which will go green to mark St Patrick’s Day this year. The unique global campaign – now in its tenth year – continues the organisation’s first-half promotional drive to build on the success of 2018 and grow overseas tourism to Ireland again in 2019.

Other new sites and buildings taking part in Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening 2019 include: The Cotton Tree in Freetown, Sierra Leone – where freed slaves gathered on their return to Africa after the abolition of slavery; the historic Cutty Sark sailing ship in Greenwich; the Beatus Rhenanus bridge over the Rhine – a symbolic bridge between France and Germany which links the city of Strasbourg and the town of Kehl; and ‘Niki’, a Cathay Pacific DC-3 airplane on display in the Cathay Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong. The new sites will join some ‘old favourites’ which have gone green in previous years – including the Great Wall of China, the London Eye, the Colosseum, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Burj al Arab in Dubai, the Sky Tower in Auckland and Niagara Falls.

Victoria Falls will join Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening for the first time.

Tourism Minister Shane Ross; Joan O’Shaughnessy, Chairman of Tourism Ireland; and Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, at the launch of Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening initiative 2019.

Getting the scoop for Ireland!

Tourism Ireland in Italy highlighted Ireland, and the many great reasons for Italian holidaymakers to visit in 2019, at an event in Milan attended by around 60 travel and lifestyle journalists and bloggers, as well as some leading Italian tour operators. The event was designed to entertain and inform the guests about Ireland and really bring the destination to life – and included a cooking demo by Paul Cunningham of Brunel’s Restaurant in Newcastle and whiskey tasting by Slane Distillery. Other companies showcasing the best of Ireland included Bord Bia, A Taste of West Cork Food Festival and Galway 2020.

Fun photo opportunities for the influencers and journalists helped stimulate sharing and conversation about Ireland on social channels during the event. Tourism Ireland also unveiled its new “Fill your Heart with Ireland” campaign (in Italian, “Irlanda Dritto al Cuore”). The Tourism Ireland team and partners from Ireland are pictured at the event.

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tourism ireland

China has lift off!

Tourism Ireland has warmly welcomed the new Hainan Airlines service from Shenzhen, in south-eastern China, to Dublin – which launched in late February. This is the second service from Mainland China to Ireland – with Hainan already operating a service from Beijing since last year – and will help to significantly boost tourism from China. Tourism Ireland will partner with Hainan Airlines this spring, to highlight Ireland and drive demand for the new flight. Activity will include Ireland ads running on popular social platforms, as well as on the Hainan Airlines website, around St Patrick’s Day. Pictured are James Kenny, Tourism Ireland; Mr Wang Yequan, General Manager of Hainan Airlines in Shenzhen; and the Hainan Airlines crew, before the take-off of the inaugural Hainan Airlines to Dublin.

'Fill Your Heart with Ireland' sales mission in the United States Tourism Ireland led a delegation of 18 Irish and US tourism companies on a sales blitz in the US – meeting, and doing business with, hundreds of travel professionals in Boca Raton (Florida), Washington DC and Atlanta (Georgia). The schedule included a B2B event in each city, with an interactive presentation showcasing Ireland – giving the participating companies a platform to promote and sell their products and services to the key American decision-makers in attendance. It also included opportunities for networking with travel and lifestyle journalists and influencers. North America offers a strong return on investment for tourism to the island of Ireland. This year, Tourism Ireland aims to build on the record year of 2018 and grow revenue from North American visitors by a further +8%, to €1.99 billion.

Ruth Moran (second left), Hillarie McGuinness (eighth left), Alison Metcalfe (tenth right) and Paul McDonagh (sixth right), all Tourism Ireland, with the delegation of Irish and US companies, at the ‘Fill Your Heart With Ireland’ event in Washington DC.

Targeting Nordic tourists for Ireland!

Ireland was promoted to leading tour operators and travel agents from Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland – at Tourism Ireland’s 2019 Nordic trade workshop, which took place in Copenhagen.

Twenty-seven (27) Irish tourism companies took part in the workshop, meeting and doing business with the Nordic tour operators, to encourage them to extend their Ireland offering, or to include Ireland for the first time, in their brochures and programmes. Pictured at the workshop are Peter Nash, Tourism Ireland; HE Clíona Manahan, Irish Ambassador to Denmark; Aileen Hickey, Tourism Ireland; Chris Lundshøj and Eimear Ryan, both Ryanair.

Tourism Ireland leads sales mission to the UAE Tourism Ireland’s 2019 sales mission to the UAE took place recently. A delegation of tourism companies from Ireland – including hoteliers, visitor attractions and destination management companies – met and concluded deals with tour operators and travel agents in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. As well as highlighting ease of access to Ireland, a key message for Tourism Ireland in the UAE is the fact that Ireland is now visa free for UAE nationals.

David Boyce, Tourism Ireland; Miriam Hughes, Irish visa office; Alison Johnston, Kildare Village; George Hook, Irish Rugby Tours; Emily Watson, Tourism Ireland; Ciara Hanley, InterContinental Dublin; Aisling McDermott, Tourism Ireland; Ruth Vaughan, The Savoy Hotel in Limerick; Siobhán Naughton, Tourism Ireland; Anita Kelly, Deputy Head of Mission for the UAE; Averil Clarke, Specialized Travel Services; Siobhán McManamy, Tourism Ireland; Paul Carty, Guinness Storehouse; Tori Henry, Tourism Ireland; Peter McMahon, Fáilte Ireland; Judith Webb, Tourism NI; Ruthie Coleman, The Merrion; and Fergus Murphy, Golf Links Ireland, in Dubai during Tourism Ireland’s sales mission to the UAE.

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Best Options

A question of trust Despite competition from social media and other online channels, readers in 2019 are remaining loyal to Irish magazines, writes Pavel Barter.

Fake news. Digital fraud. Spamming. Pop-up ads. Disinformation.

In 2019, the online world is a perilous environment where our senses are assaulted with a barrage of information: some of it untrue, most of it unwanted. Yet as social media companies and search engines dabble in an avalanche of dubious content, consumers remain loyal to traditional media brands such as the magazine you now hold in your hand (or read online).

"There is still a core, niche group of people who follow a particular magazine, who are engaged with it and who trust the editorial," explains Grace Aungier, CEO of Magazines Ireland. "Irish magazine brands, whether online or elsewhere, are producing well-curated content for a specific audience. Journalists who write about the hotel and catering business in a magazine brand [such as H&R Times] come with the endorsement of an entire industry."

In Ireland, 63% of adults read magazines regularly; 2.2m read one in the last month.

The definition of magazines has transformed in the digital age.

Magazines Ireland incorporates 185 publications - covering everything from fashion to food, beauty to business - and print is just one of their manifestations. These brands span areas such as digital, video, social, events, and licensing.

Print remains the ultimate glossy indulgence, says Aungier. "Print publications provide immediate connection with large audiences.

There's the quality of the paper and the design. You can create gatefolds, binding, inserts. The tactile nature of magazines is important.

People want good quality content, curated and edited by a professional journalist."

Magazines carry a societal imperative. Not only do they bring footfall into local shops, driving other purchases, but indigenous titles such as H&R Times reflect Irish society and arguably drive democracy. "So it's important the government realises the importance of magazines that are targeted to an Irish audience. On a micro level they have an important role to play in education and informing audiences on a range of issues. Business-to-business titles have an important role in the continual professional development of their members."

There is also a question of trust. Digital advertising is huge in 2019.

Google and Facebook soak up a lot of this revenue. Yet following multiple scandals around digital fraud and brand safety, there is a crisis of trust online. According to a report from Radio Centre, the UK's industry body for commercial radio, "digital detox, banner blindness and ad-blocking are all symptoms of an advertising ecosystem that is overloaded".

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Online journalism has been usurped by influencers. Yet following a litany of ethical and legal controversies, there is a dearth of trust for many of these so-called role-models.

Last year, BBC Radio 4 in the UK asked 1,000 shoppers for their opinion of Instagram influencers. 82% of those who took part said it was not always clear when an influencer had been paid to promote a product.

Print ads in newspapers and magazines, on the other hand, are consistently described as the most trusted advertising channels.

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Unlike social media channels, where consumers either block ads or skim through them at speed, there is more dwell time in print. According to a new report by Magnetic, the trade body for the magazine sector in the UK, magazines are a "high-attention environment".

"There is more engagement in print," agrees Aungier. "People are not distracted when they read magazines. They're not going down an online rabbit hole. Many brands advertise within a particular context, within a particular publication, such as the hospitality industry."

Until last year, the hospitality and magazine industries were bedfellows.

In 2011, the government reduced the VAT rate for tourism and magazines from 13.5% to 9%. This was raised back to its original amount for tourism in Budget 2019, but magazines retained their 9% rate. Magazines Ireland also successfully lobbied for the rate on digital publications to be reduced from 23% to 9%.

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Magazines are asserting their digital footprint, though. Magazines Ireland, as part of the European Magazine Media Association (EMMA), recently reached an agreement as part of EU copyright reform, which protects publishers against the unauthorised digital reproduction and distribution of their content. Once confirmed and published by the European Parliament, member states will have 24 months to transpose these new rules into national legislation.

"We're trying to have a fair system," explains the Magazines Ireland chief. "Magazine publishers need to be able to negotiate license agreements with Google and Facebook, so we must protect our member's publications in the digital world."

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However, there remains 0% VAT on print and digital publications in the UK and other European jurisdictions. Magazines Ireland is campaigning for the Irish government to implement the same standard in Ireland.

"We want an even playing pitch," says Aungier. "80% of the titles on our newsstands are from the UK. It means UK publishers have bigger marketing budgets and deeper pockets. They have a huge advantage in the Irish market."

Following Brexit, Irish publications may be disadvantaged even further.

"Who knows what's going to happen? Will it be bad for Irish magazines?

Is there an opportunity for magazines? Are there going to be tariffs on UK titles coming into Ireland? We are an all-island association, so we have some members who print their magazines in the north of Ireland and some who maybe print abroad. Sterling rates affect all of that."

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Publishers face increased competition from online channels but an engaged tribe of followers continue to support Irish magazines.

"The editor of a typical Irish magazine is closely connected with their product. An advertiser places their ad in a trusted environment in an Irish magazine. There is reader engagement and affiliation with the brand."

Traditional media is not sitting still. It is finding new ways to keep its medium alive and stay relevant, migrating to new platforms to reach its market, diversifying its base, conducting native advertising, editorial partnerships, content marketing and events.

"Magazines are now in print, pixels and person," according to Aungier.

"That provides lots of opportunities for readers. The audience has moved and magazines have moved with them."

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IFSA news

FOOD & BEV LIVE 2020 – YOUR RECIPE FOR SUCCESS! Returning to Citywest, Dublin, 4th - 5th February 2020, Food & Bev Live will once again welcome Ireland’s leading foodservice industry operators along with a range of national skills finals. The event will witness the National Barista Championships organised by the Irish Chapter of the Specialty Coffee Association, SCA, The Irish Cocktail Championships organised by the Bartenders Association of Ireland, the Chef Ireland Culinary Competitions organised by the Panel of Chefs of Ireland.

Food & Bev Live will give you two days to showcase your business, its products and innovations to an audience eager to buy and build relationships.

For details on how to get involved with Food & Bev Live contact Margaret at margaret.andreucetti@eventhaus.ie or call (01) 8460020.

DUBLIN FOOD SALES Established in 1982, Dublin Food Sales is part of the Meehan Family Food Group, which is a highly regarded independent and Irish owned catering wholesaler based in Glasnevin, Dublin 11.

The Meehan Family Food Group supplies all sectors of the foodservice market, with distribution coverage across Ireland. The company also operates from depots in Wexford & Waterford, we offer our customers a service that will not be beaten. With a 24hour answering and web ordering facility, a same day delivery service and daily weekday deliveries, Dublin Food Sales is in a league of its own!

CEO Richard Meehan ensures they are providing an extensive product offering across ambient, chilled, frozen, fresh meat, produce and non-food product categories from our carefully chosen network of producers – both locally, regional, national and international. Using temperature-controlled vehicles and understanding our customer needs, be it a Michelin star kitchen, Restaurant, Takeaway, Golf Club or a company canteen, we can cater to your needs.

We are different because we suit you, not ourselves. Our approach to sourcing is simple – tell us what you want, and we will deliver exactly that to you. We are members of Stonehouse, the leading National Independent Wholesale Cash and Carry group allowing it to avail of huge buying power. We stock over 6500 products and are “Your total turn-key supply chain solution” Health & Safety and H.A.C.C.P can be provided on request.

Contact: Richard Meehan - CEO Phone: 01 8303833 Email: info@dublinfoodsales.ie www.dublinfoodsales.ie www.meehanfoods.com

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KBR Foodservice Equipment Ltd.

are delighted to announce the launch of their new divison, KBR Healthcare Equipment, focussing exclusively on their partnership with Socamel Technologies, a world leading manufacturer of Food Distribution Solutions for the Healthcare Sector for over 70 years. Socamel are already an established brand in Ireland with many satisfied clients in the Healthcare Sector. With factory trained engineers, KBR Healthcare Equipment can provide an excellent sales and back-up service. Further details can be found on www. kbrhealthcare.ie or phone 01-2916261 where a representative will be happy to take your call.

Excel opens new Cork office

Excel Recruitment are delighted to announce the official opening of our brand new Cork office.

Excel Recruitment have been recruiting roles for some of the biggest hospitality groups in Cork and Munster for many years and have long-standing, solid relationships with some of the biggest retail and hospitality brands in and around the city.

Our new base will allow us to meet candidates on the ground in a central location at a time that suits them, speeding up the time to hire and streamlining the recruitment process for both clients and candidates. Our new base will also allow us to more seamlessly manage our temp and events team working at some of the biggest events and venues around Cork.

Heading up our Cork office will be Branch Manager Richard Carey, a native Corkonian and seasoned recruiter. Richard has vast experience in sales, client services and recruitment of all kinds and is known for his commitment to his clients and his diligence in meeting their needs.

The new location is just the beginning as 2019 is set to be a massive year for Excel Recruitment. This year sees not only the opening of our Cork office but also a move to brand new offices in our Dublin home, purpose-built to accommodate our ever-growing hospitality division. For more details on how Excel can help your hospitality business source exceptional staff, please call Shane Mclave on 01-8717676 or Richard in our Cork office on 021-2376002.

IFSA news

30% growth in Irish market for cleaning and foodservice giant Mount Charles Mount Charles, Ireland’s leading independent foodservice, cleaning and business support company, and all-Ireland Cleaning Provider of the Year, has announced that its turnover has grown by just over 30% in the Irish market in the last year, with almost €2.5 million in new cleaning and catering contracts won from its Dublin base.

Overall turnover for the Belfast-headquartered business has risen by 20% to £40 million and with employee figures growing to 2,500 in the same period, the company is firmly on the path to achieving its ambitious target of £100 million turnover by 2025.

Since establishing a base in Dublin just a year ago, the company has secured over €10 million of new contracts, with recent cleaning contract wins including the Pensions Authority, Housing Association and St Louis High School adding to a portfolio of high profile Dublin-based contracts comprising the Public Appointments Service, National Aquatic Centre, Abbey Theatre and the prestigious Custom House, home to the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government.

Trevor Annon, Chairman and founder of Mount Charles said: “We announced our intention to achieve a turnover of £100million by 2025 to mark our 30th anniversary at the end of 2018; and this latest year on year growth is in line with our forecast and predication that we will achieve this target.

“The Republic of Ireland marketplace is now a key target for us as we

continue to develop our Dublin based service delivery and management team. Growing our market share from our Dublin base remains a key priority, and will be a major driver of overall company growth over the next five years, with cleaning and catering services in particular playing a significant role.

“We have increased our infrastructure and focused on strategic talent acquisition, and are now in a very strong position to capitalise on the opportunity to consistently grow our operations in Ireland.

“This latest figure of 30% growth in what is a competitive marketplace is encouraging, and a clear sign that we are bringing an attractive offering to the table, both in terms of value, quality and innovation in our approach,” he finished.

Mount Charles is the current all-Ireland Cleaning Provider of the Year, as recognised by the Facilities Management Awards.

The company has been shortlisted for the 2019 awards in the same category, as well as Client & Service Provider Partnership of the Year for its long-standing contract with Titanic Belfast, the world’s number one tourist attraction as named by the World Travel Awards.

COFFEE & COLLABORATION: A SUCCESS STORY FROM PERU Following the success of their award-winning sustainability project with the San Juan del Oro Coffee Cooperative in Southern Peru, 2015-18 saw Matthew Algie partner in a multistakeholder programme alongside UK retailer Marks & Spencer; coffee roasters Taylors of Harrogate and NGO and not-for profit trader, Twin to further increase the resilience of coffee farming for the both the San Juan del Oro & CAC. Pangoa Cooperatives.

This 3-year project involved addressing many issues impacting smallholder coffee communities including sustainable agriculture, gender equality & youth engagement. These interrelated issues meant that coffee farming in the region was becoming less viable and it was felt addressing these issues collaboratively was more likely to yield sustainable, longterm results which would benefit all parties.

The result?

Through training in new farming practices, workers are now equipped to produce organic compost and fertiliser independently, helping yields increase dramatically (+56.8%). Cupping scores have also improved with the San Juan del Oro cooperative recording consistent cup scores of 80 points+.

Progress has also been made in breaking down cultural gender norms amongst families.

Following GALS training (Gender Action Learning System), 94% of participants reported a direct impact on gender roles and dynamics within their households with more responsibilities shared. Both cooperatives also witnessed an increase in female membership and women in leadership positions.

Success of the project was also seen in youth engagement with over 450 young people trained across both cooperatives via workshops and an increased number of young people becoming cooperative members (+12%).

For full details of the project and its positive impact on these issues, visit

www.matthewalgie.com

Robot-Coupe, Food Preparation Specialists Robot-coupe UK Ltd created their signature food processor over 40 years ago, in the heart of Burgundy, France. They now manufacture a wide range of food preparation equipment with each machine adapted to suit various professional needs, including those of restaurants, caterers, institutions and delicatessens.

Their high quality products include table-top cutters, automatic juice extractors and automatic sieves, as well as a selection of unique machines. Robot Cook® is the first ever professional heating food processor and the only cooking cutter blender on the market. It allows the user to emulsify, grind, blend, chop, mix and knead to perfection, and is the ideal appliance for hot, cold, sweet and savoury dishes. Its combination of high speed settings and enviable cutting quality, along with its ability to heat ingredients to a temperature of 140˚C, will be loved by chefs. They also manufacture the Blixer®, a machine which combines the features of the cutter and the blender/mixer to allow the user to prepare all types of mixed and liquidized food.

To see how Robot-coupe can help with your food preparation needs, head to their website, which includes their full range of products along with an extensive selection of recipes.

www.robot-coupe.com/en-uk 02082321811 H&RT FEBRUARY/MARCH 2019

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IFSA news

Discounts in Valentine 2019 Pricing Valentine Equipment has announced significant discounts on its full range of table top fryers detailed in the new Valentine 2019 Price Book.

“We are delighted to pass on discounts of 8% across the whole Valentine fryer table top range thanks to a series of efficiency drives in the production factory from our Swiss manufacturer Valentine Fabrique.

“The company has focussed on making its production methods leaner saving on materials and labour to reduce costs and has passed those savings to us, so we can reduce the price we charge our customers in the UK and Ireland for table top fryers,” comments Steve Elliott, sales director for Valentine Equipment and Cuisinequip.

This is timely as Valentine plans to introduce a new slimline table top fryer in the shape of the TF5 and this will add another option to foodservice operations looking for a high quality, reliable fryer that can be moved around kitchens when and where it is needed. The Valentine table top fryer range and the new TF5 comes with the standard Valentine parts and labour warranty of three years, plus a lifetime warranty of 20 years on the pan. www.valentinefryers.com Call: 0118 9571344

Massey Catering Equipment Ltd

is a leading supplier of Commercial Catering Equipment based in Northern Ireland. Trading since 1982, our Company prides itself upon competitively priced, high-quality Catering products which are tailored to the resources of our diverse range of valued customers.

The sectors of clients we work with include Hotels and Restaurants, Nursing homes, Traditional Fish and Chip shops, Foreign Cuisine Takeaways, Fast food outlets, Cafes and Coffee Shops, Butcheries and many more. We Supply, Install and Service Industrial and Commercial Catering Equipment throughout the UK and Ireland and have developed an excellent clientele which includes National Fast Food Chains, Construction Companies, Nursing Home Groups and Education Boards.

As the Main Distribution Agents for companies such as Electrolux Professional and Blue Seal alongside many other leading Brands our company will have the solution to any Kitchen requirement whether it be completely new fit out, refurbishment or upgrade. We also cater for you Stainless Steel and Extraction needs with both standard and bespoke options available.

Using the latest Design software, we aim to provide you with an non-obligation accurate, detailed and well-balanced kitchen design at no additional cost to our client.

Our reputation above all else is what drives our business, we welcome you to visit us at our well stocked showroom which includes a demonstration ready in-house kitchen and is located conveniently of the M1 motorway in Moira.

See our Website, Facebook and Twitter for much more. Finance is also available on our wide range of catering products.

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EDEN

is a new, sustainably sourced, chilled food brand. We have introduced a delicious range of five vegetarian and vegan friendly burgers and bites which are all proudly produced in Ireland. Served as nature intended it, the new EDEN range ticks all the boxes.

With five products in the EDEN uses only natural, wholesome and sustainably sourced ingredients. Ensuring the best taste, the EDEN product range is steamed rather than fried ensuring a flavoursome, honest and better tasting meal option. The EDEN range includes burgers in a choice of Curried Cauliflower, Spinach and Feta, Beetroot and Kale or Garden Vegetable and sides of Beetroot and Kale bites, and new vegan sausages.

Eden Brand Mission is to give the health-conscious more enjoyable eating experiences by creating better quality vegetarian products that are unrivalled in flavour and texture. We invest our time in creating sustainable and tasty products that entice you to choose vegetarian over meat-based meals.

Eden Brand Purpose is to help fellow foodies enjoy healthy green choices that make them feel better about themselves, their loved ones and their planet.

In 2019, Loughnanes launched Eden, using their years of experience in food production they decided to bring a positive change to our consumer’s diets and the environment

CIA Ireland

Miwe Ovens are one of Germany’s foremost bakery oven manufacturers.

Miwe are delighted to announce the Catering Innovation Agency ltd as Ireland’s MIWE’s partner for Ireland.

MIWE export manager Roy Kim expressed delight with the new partnership and enthused at the track record of Seamus Marnane, Enda ODonoghue and Brian Dempsey of the CIA. Marnane is confident that the new partnership will Pictured are Brian Dempsey Enda ODonoghue and Seamus Marnane enhance the CIA portfolio of Merrychef, from the CIA Palux, Zanussi and Coreco.

Instore bakeries, pastry chefs and specialist delicatessens will appreciate the quality of MIWE.

See www.ciaireland.ie for further details

Great National Hotels & Resorts

THE WEST’S AWAKE Nestled on the western Atlantic coastline overlooking Clew Bay, the GN Mulranny Park in Mulranny, Co. Mayo undoubtedly enjoys one of the most picturesque locations in the country.

Limerick native Dermot Madigan has been the General Manager at the Mulranny Park since 2009, and he believes that the hotel’s enviable location is one of the main reasons that guests flock to the hotel’s doorstep. “The location, along with our emphasis on being a food destination, is what we’re building in the hotel”, he says.

The location isn’t without its challenges however. The Mulranny Park is located close to the popular tourist destinations of Westport and Achill, which Madigan admits can difficult to compete with. “The rate is one thing that drives people to Westport, and it’s hard to compete with that”, he says. “The rate is low at some times of the year. That’s why our positioning as a food destination is so important - it’s what can set our hotel apart.”

Food is a key selling point for the Mulranny Park Hotel, with an emphasis on using locally sourced produce. The hotel devised the Gourmet Greenway around seven years ago, in association

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Great National Hotels & Resorts

with several Mayo food producers to showcase the excellent artisan food in the local area and along the route of the Great Western Greenway. Madigan feels that the initiative provided “a great marketing opportunity to promote the hotel as a food tourist destination.”

Madigan is passionate about using locally sourced produce in the hotel: “There’s a story on every plate, and our food is sourced right here on our doorstep.

The hotel’s butcher is the renowned Kelly’s of Newport; oysters are sourced from Padraic Gannon Seafood, while our salmon is Clare Island salmon, smoked in Keel Bay, Achill. We use Achill sea salt, and honey from across the road”.

The Mulranny Park Hotel is one of the few hotels uniquely located between the Great Western Greenway and the Wild Atlantic Way, and Madigan has seen how the promotion of these successful initiatives has had a benefit for the business. “While it’s hard to measure in terms of heads, we are able to measure it in terms of passing trade through our Waterfront Bar”, he explains.

The majority of the hotel’s customer base comes from Ireland, along with visitors from Northern Ireland, continental Europe and the US. The hotel places an emphasis on general hospitality, and enjoys strong wedding business, which is unsurprising given its picturesque location. It is also seen as a great destination for families, with the Mulranny Park’s outstanding leisure facilities adding to the attractiveness of the hotel for families.

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Great National Hotels & Resorts

Madigan believes guests are looking for somewhere to get away that is better than their own home; somewhere that is unique and comfortable. He has seen a real focus on food amongst guests recently and will often see guests who will eat at the hotel on a number of nights during their stay.

Another recent successful development for the Mulranny Park has been joining the Great National group, which Madigan confirms has been a very positive experience for the business. “Being part of the Great National group has given us access to specialists in different areas ranging from purchasing and food to fire & safety and IT”, he explains.

“For a stand-alone hotel, they’ve put a huge investment into the hotel, and as a result we’ve been able to renovate our ballroom and upgrade our IT system. Working in a group is definitely a lot easier than working as an individual.”

The Mulranny Park is the largest employer in the area, with just over 100 people employed at high season. Staff recruitment and retention is an industry-wide challenge, and something which the hotel has experienced.

“The sourcing of skilled labour is very difficult locally. We focus on developing the people we have here, rather than sourcing from outside”, says Madigan. “Most of our staff are locally based – they may come from elsewhere but are settled in Mulranny. Staff retention is always a challenge, but the people working here have been with us for a number of years. People who have sons, nephews, daughters…. they might start working with us for the summer and then stay with us. There’s a real warm sense of homeliness here, the Mulranny family.”

Madigan believes that they have a highly skilled, experienced team in place. “The hotel has a well-established kitchen team. Our head chef has been in the job for five years and has been with the hotel itself for 12 years, so he is very comfortable.”

Looking forward to the next 12 months, Madigan feels that the hotel faces the usual challenges. “The vat rate increase was very hard to take, and makes life difficult”, he says. “It was one sector in the whole budget that got penalised. In an industry that really dragged us out of the mire in 2009, I felt a phased increase would’ve been fairer for the industry.”

The uncertainty around Brexit is also a challenge facing the industry, and Madigan believes that it will undoubtedly have some impact on the business. “Brexit will definitely have an impact in terms of supply chains, and also whether our customers are affected. We may not necessarily be impacted directly, but there are the effects on the business of our repeat guests”.

Despite the challenges facing the industry, Madigan believes the outlook is strong for the year ahead.

“Reinvesting money into the property is still a challenge, but we’re getting to the stage where we can invest bit by bit every year”.

And with the hotel’s continued emphasis on its location and food offerings, the Mulranny Park Hotel is well equipped to continue to prosper.

www.mulrannyparkhotel.ie

H&RT FEBRUARY/MARCH 2019

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fáilte industry news

€2m investment in Irish Racehorse Experience Funding of almost €2million for the Irish Racehorse Experience in Kildare was announced as part of the Fáilte Ireland Grants Scheme for Large Tourism Projects 2016-2020.

The Irish Racehorse Experience will, when, completed be a new indoor attraction at the Irish National Stud and Gardens in Ireland’s Ancient East and will celebrate Ireland’s horse racing industry and heritage. Central to the attraction will be an immersive experience which takes the visitor through what it is like to train and race a thoroughbred from foal to finish. Visitors will also have the opportunity to ‘race’ their horse through state-of-art simulation technology which has never been used in Ireland before. The Irish Racehorse Experience is set to open in Spring 2020.

Online Business Tools Launched for Chefs Fáilte Ireland in conjunction with the Chef Network recently launched the first in a series of online business tools, the Chef Action Plan, designed to help chefs become more commercially efficient without compromising on food quality. The Chef Action Plan features easy-to-use, downloadable business tools to help chefs streamline their operations, freeing up resources for investment in the business leading to benefits such as the ability to source the best local and seasonal ingredients, providing additional training and professional development, hiring an extra member of the team, or purchasing the latest must-have equipment. The four step Action Plan will be shared online over the coming months demonstrating how to achieve real savings in the kitchen through smart purchasing, effective control of food costs, clever management of labour, and efficient waste reduction.

Chefs can sign up at www.chefnetwork.ie

Return of the May the Fourth Festival Following the success of Fáilte Ireland’s first ‘May the 4th Be With You’ festival in May 2018, the festival will take place again this year, with events along the Wild Atlantic Way in both Kerry and Donegal. Kicking off on May the 3rd in the Kerry village of Portmagee and for the first time, across Donegal’s Inishowen Peninsula, the three-day festival will include a host of fun activities for all-ages to celebrate May the 4th, the day when fans across the globe commemorate the Star Wars Universe. A full programme of events for the ‘May the 4th Be With You’ festival will be unveiled soon at: www.wildatlanticway. com/may-the-fourth

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fáilte industry news

Big Wins in the Business Conference Market Fáilte Ireland’s business tourism team have recently announced 57 conferences and events worth at least €28million. The conferences will take place at venues across the country, and are expected to attract over 19,000 international delegates. Business Tourism is currently worth at least €760million to the Irish economy and supports 22,000 jobs. Fáilte Ireland is working on growing the sector to bring the value of business tourism to the Irish economy over the €1billion mark.

Every business delegate is worth in the region of €1,600 to the economy which is three times more than the average leisure tourist. Fáilte Ireland has identified Business Tourism as a priority sector as it helps businesses prepare for Brexit.

It will focus on growing business tourism in the regions outside Dublin by supporting Regional Convention Bureaux in Shannon, Cork, Kerry and Galway. Fáilte Ireland is aiming to win conferences worth €31m for locations outside Dublin this year, a 15% increase on last year.

€3 Million for Major Festivals and Events Fáilte Ireland is to invest nearly €3 million in funding to enhance and promote 40 festivals nationwide and develop new festivals and events across the country. Festivals and events are critical for tourism growth as they specifically attract more than 200,000 overseas visitors to Ireland and contribute €108million to the economy every year. The allocation of funding will be used to enhance existing festivals, develop new festival ideas and support St. Patrick’s Day celebrations across the country. Fáilte Ireland has identified festivals as a key component for tourism growth, particularly during off-season times.

€8 million Redevelopment Plan for Avondale House and Forest Park Plans have been recently announced by Fáilte Ireland and Coillte, Ireland’s largest commercial forestry company to re-develop Avondale House and Forest Park into a state-of-the-art visitor attraction. A total of €8 million will be invested in the redevelopment of Avondale House and Forest Park with Fáilte Ireland contributing more than €6.1million to the project. Wicklow County Council is also supporting the redevelopment which will provide a major boost to Ireland’s tourism when it opens in 2021. Avondale House, once the home of Charles Stewart Parnell, is now owned

by Coillte and is considered the birthplace of Irish Forestry. The 500-acre estate was originally built for Samuel Hayes in the 1700’s who introduced exotic tree species into Ireland, right through to the state’s acquisition of Avondale in 1904, ultimately leading to Coillte’s formation in 1989.

Further detailed information on the articles above is available at www.failteireland.ie H&RT FEBRUARY/MARCH 2019

39

Driving Availability

Get Ready for Summer Distribution

with Guestline's Step by Step Solution to Driving the Correct Balance accross your availability Do you remember a time when the only option for booking a hotel room was to book directly with your hotel of choice or through a walk-in travel agent service at your local shopping centre? Fast forward two decades and the growing prevalence of online travel agents has revolutionised how consumers search for, review, choose and book hotel rooms.

With travellers moving online to find hotels, bringing the entire hotel distribution market with them, today, hotels must strike a balance between enticing guests to book directly, whilst also maintaining a presence on an array of OTA’s. As the industry races into an irrevocably digital future, together, hotel websites and OTA’s account for the vast percentage of all room bookings, thus developing an effective distribution strategy is critical and must encompass revenue, sales, e-commerce, marketing, guest relationship management and technology. But, implementing it carefully is an even more important step to maximise return and drive continued growth.

Here, Guestline, the global leader in hotel cloud property management systems, distribution and digital marketing technologies and who have a reputation for offering awardwinning solutions to hotels, highlights its step by step solution to driving that correct balance across your availability.

Step 1: Adopting the Right Technology to Tie it all in Together Developing a pricing strategy and establishing distribution channels is an important part of your overall distribution

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strategy, but it’s not complete until you invest in the right technology to seamlessly tie all these components together. A hotel Property Management System (PMS) should effectively be the lifeblood of your property and together with the right partners will allow you to connect with your various distribution channels, update your rates based on market demands and consumer trends and maximise your bookings.

Step 2: Driving Direct Revenue to your Own Brand Website

No channel is more profitable than your own hotel website.

Direct business comes with fewer third-party fees, the guest’s contact details, higher profit margins and ultimately supports a hotel’s bottom line, and there are several tactics and strategies that help drive more direct bookings for hotel properties. Increasingly, both small independents and large hoteliers are focusing on solutions, data and analytics to shift away from OTA’s and toward direct bookings. To achieve this, hoteliers are integrating their reservation management systems and booking engine with its PMS to ensure a seamless process for potential guests and allowing for the creation and promotion of last-minute offers that are more attractive (Best available rates) and targeted (family packages, romantic getaways, city breaks) than those available through third party channels.

Phelim Pekaar, CEO of p3 Hotels, providers of technology solutions to empower hotel groups to increase bookings and

Driving Availability revenue directly through their brand websites, talks about their partnership with Guestline: “Our core product is a fully customised booking engine that best converts visitors to guests through a simple and appealing booking journey. Guestline Rezlynx PMS open API technology allows p3 to build and design a customisable and fully branded booking engine for hotels to drive their direct own brand web channel.

The relationship between p3 and Guestline flows great.

There’s a quick engagement within the tech team, and they have a clear understanding of our customers’ needs.”

Direct Booking Expert Bookassist partners with independent hotels and hotel groups to help them optimise their direct booking strategy. Head of Marketing Claire Sawier concludes that direct booking success is achieved by working with the best technology and the best online strategy partners. Integrated booking technology with web design, digital marketing and metasearch solutions, as well as streamlined internal integration with systems such as Guestline’s Rezlynx PMS are all essential to building a strong online brand that delivers on profitability.

Step 3: Boost Revenue with Real Time Availability

Hotels must be able to effectively distribute their rooms to all agents in real-time. By partnering with a channel manager through your PMS, hotels can provide their live availability to every agent, regardless of location and time zone, allowing the sale of as many rooms as possible and securing those valuable last-minute bookings. This sophisticated two-way integration technology, builds a link between the hotel’s PMS, Revenue Management System and chosen OTA’s.

When accommodation is then purchased, the hotel’s PMS updates itself, eliminating manual uploads and overbookings. Meanwhile, real time rates, availability and restrictions are automatically sent from the PMS to the hotel’s booking channels – maximising room inventory and revenue.

Step 4: Maximising the hotel-OTA partnership

Distribution through online travel agencies is often termed by hoteliers as the least profitable channel. But, at the same time, they offer brand recognition and incremental revenue and it has great utility when it comes to reaching out to first time customers given OTAs have a worldwide reach of traveller consumers that a hotel marketing team could only dream of! But the key is to leverage these partnerships with OTA’s and implement a successful direct booking strategy that will make sure once OTA bookers reach your hotel, they’re turned into direct bookers for their next trip.

An important tactic is to make sure that you’re the one communicating with the guest during their stay. By providing exceptional service at all touch points before, during and after the guest’s stay, exceeding expectations and making sure the guest feels valued, will make them more loyal and more likely to book directly on future stays. In this digital age, paying attention to data and automation can only compliment the human side of the experience. It’s the data that is going to give you the valuable insight into the wants and needs of the guest satisfaction and the overall customer experience. From obtaining client’s contact details for future marketing, encouraging feedback and online reviews, communicate benefits (and rewards!) of booking direct to follow up email campaign correspondence. Remember, OTA’s can’t compete with your ability to build relationships, wow customers and provide a memorable experience.

Distribution isn’t just about technology. It’s about using the right PMS technology as a basis and together with partners, building on it with sales, marketing, communication, call to action and conversion platforms. It’s about profiling your guests, keeping them engaged and satisfied and the need to adopt the right strategies that will put you ahead of the competition.

www.Guestline.com

H&RT FEBRUARY/MARCH 2019

41

Vision vs Mission

Perfect Vision

By Conor Kenny

(And how to make it happen)

Confused?

Most people confuse Vision with Mission.

Vision is the guiding light that takes you where you want to go. It is idealistic, imaginary, and visionary. It should also be exciting, engaging and based on realistic viable goals.

On the other hand, Mission is simply what you need to do to get there.

It can be tricky to create a path that will help you map out exactly where you want to go. This article will give you the structure not just to create your vision but also the things you need to do to make it happen.

Why Bother?

If an army were about to go into battle it is a reasonable to assume that they would have a plan. That plan would also have to be based on a clear vision. The realisation of that vision would be a fair assessment of whether or not it was successful and there would be measurable consequences to manage if that mission failed.

Business is no different, but do you plan? In fact, do you know where you are going? Or where it is you are trying to get to?

If the Generals in the tent have no idea what they are doing, where they are going, or how to get there, then what chance have the soldiers in winning the battle, let alone the war?

Environment

Many organisations and leaders race off with an urgent need to develop a ‘strategy’ but, all of our Teachers were right when they said “Do not answer the exam question immediately. Pause, think and then begin to construct your answer” Our response? “Yeah right!” Funny thing is, those habits die hard.

Before you can even think about a new vision, a plan, or strategy, you must examine where you are at. What’s going on? Who is leading? Why so? What has changed? What are the implications?

Therefore, a solid strategy will consider this first, if you like, the take off point.

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Vision

Before you can begin a journey, you have to set out where you want to go and then communicate that vision, image or picture to the people who will take you there. If you fail to paint the picture you will quickly run out of steam and your troops will be busy fools consuming energy, resources and profit.

But what is ‘vision’? It is the art of seeing what nobody else sees and it is the art of articulating and expressing that in a way that is understood.

Oscar Wilde said; “A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.”

But vision without action is a futile time consuming folly. As Joel Barker said: “Vision without action is a dream. Action without vision is simply passing the time. Action with Vision is making a positive difference.”

Vision then is painting a picture of your destination. Simply, it is where you want to be. It is what you aspire to.

Mission

In simple terms, ‘the mission’ will set out the things you have to do to reach the destination, you know, that ‘vision’ place. To be effective it must ask several simple but revealing questions. For example, what business are you in? What makes you unique and stand out from the crowd? What is your particular legitimacy, or put it another way, why do you deserve to exist? Finally, the mission is the immediate road map of where you are going to travel. Simply, mission is how you execute and deliver your purpose.

Paul B. Thornton sums it up; “Without mission, there’s no purpose.

Without vision, there’s no destination. Without values, there are no guiding principles”

Values

Many businesses are in the same business, just like hotels. Many target the same customer and have similar propositions; many are more of the same. So what is it that marks out those that are more successful than others? Why is it that they have a higher repeat business ratio?

Why is it guests say simple things like “they are just very nice people”?

The answer? ‘Values’ it’s that slightly below the radar ethos, culture, and attitude that is interwoven in every organisation. It’s not obvious, rarely taught but ever present. Stephen Covey said; “Principles should not be confused with values. Principles describe how things are and how they work, whereas values state where we aim to go. If principles are the territory, then values are maps” Values are what you stand for, what you believe in and are, in some ways, the moral compass of your business.

Strategy

In his book ‘Can You Manage’ Ivor Kenny describes strategy as” the step by step removal of removable constraints. Competitive strategy means deliberately choosing a different set of activities to deliver a unique mix of value” But beware, if your strategic discussion begins and ends with the present reality then you will take your people on a

Vision vs Mission scenic undulating journey that will have set out full of hope and optimism but ended up in a cul-de-sac right by the road you started on. On the other hand, if you inspire, lead and motivate your people well and lift their eyes beyond the horizon away from the daily slog of firefighting, it will quickly become a cheerful, productive and optimistic exercise.

Strategy is not just a plan, not just an idea; it is a way of life for a company.

Structure

The objectives, mission, and goals will determine the people you need. The people will fit the structure and the structure must be the most efficient use of skill, ingenuity and resource available to you.

Structures must be simple and avoid complexity, hierarchy and confusion. Then, the people fit the structure, not the other way around. But beware! Structures should not inhibit growth, thinking, change or more importantly, innovation and outside the box thinking. Edward DeBono said; “We need creativity in order to break free from the temporary structures that have been set up by a particular sequence of experience.”

People

Many years ago a kind and wise boss dispensed a piece of wisdom I have never forgotten “Conor, never design the job around the person” It has stood me in good stead. Many people fall into the trap of ‘accommodating’ what the person needs rather than what the job requires. It can be fatal and costly. Every strategy will create a basic set of criteria or fundamentals. In turn, that creates the structure and the people simply slot into that framework.

However, this is not a call to panic because, in most cases, the people are right under your nose. Talent is not some magical imaginary ‘perfect’ manager outside your business, they are already within. The trick is to identify them, move them, develop them and encourage. After all, no plan will go anywhere without a motivated, trained and clear team.

Standards

It’s not much good having a map if you have no measure.

Imagine a petrol tank with no gauge? Not much use and sooner or later you will run out of fuel and probably when you are least prepared. It’s not a bad dictum to state “Measure everything” By measuring things we know how we are doing.

By knowing how you are doing you can test how well you are performing against your standards. But, standards, and especially the dreaded SOP manuals, need to be tested, revisited, updated and challenged regularly. There is very little chance that the standards you applied a few years ago are still relevant today.

When Ed Koch was Mayor of New York he was keen to know how his performance was perceived. He shunned his state car and took yellow cabs everywhere. He wanted to stay in touch.

His famous question every time he got into the cab? “How am I doing?”

Finally, the very essence of ‘standards’ is the fundamental of consistency. Beware then of the sentiment that Andres S. Tannenbaum pointed out when he said; “The nicest thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from”

Control

Control does not mean autocracy or even dictatorship.

Control, in this context, means how do you know if you are off course or have derailed. In any plan it is imperative that you have a ‘plan B’ and a method for checking your progress.

Every plan will change once activated. New forces, dynamics, and unforeseen events will challenge the direct route you so easily imagined. That is the norm, not the startling exception.

Plans change, full stop. A successful strategy recognises and prepares for that. Good leadership stays calm and works around the problem. Bad managers keep relentlessly banging their head against the unforeseen roadblock. It takes time to realise it is not going to shift - precious time, and certainly not a good use of energy, fuel and resources!

Leadership

Organisations and people imitate their leaders. Culture comes from the top. If the leaders have a bad attitude it will cascade throughout the organisation. If your attitude to service and customers is hostile and exploitative, your customers will sense that very quickly too, and so will your staff.

Real leadership is a combination of character and competence. Character is who you are; competence is what you can do. In Ivor Kenny’s ‘Can You Manage’ there is a useful paragraph which can act as a wise safety valve. He says; “There are two kinds of people in the world, builders and pirates, and pirates never ought to be promoted to a high rank” Perish the thought then of a bad leader in a stormy sea. Leadership and leaders define your business. If you get it wrong you will struggle to recover, get it right and you will plough through the waves. As John Quincy Adams once said; “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader”.

Finally

A few years back I had the privilege of doing some work with Diageo in their London office. The conversation and meeting were dynamic, creative and cheerful. At the end of a long and rewarding meeting, I finally got to look at the caption under the poster that had been in front of me all day. It was simple, effective and memorable. It quoted Abraham Lincoln, “I walk slowly, but I never walk backward.”

Come to think of it, isn’t that exactly what a good strategy should be?

Conor Kenny is the Principal of Conor Kenny & Associates, a

professional development, training and direct consultancy company, (Best Professional development Consultancy 2018 – Irish Enterprise Awards) specialising in sales, marketing, strategy and management skills and focused on helping you get the best from your people and business.

He is the author of 3 books. Sales Tales (2014) Dancing at the Fountain (2016) – Irish Examiner Best Business Books of the Year. It’s Who I Am (2017) – Irish Times Best Business Books of the Year.

His new book, ‘Forward Fast’ is due out in Spring 2019 www.conorkenny.com

H&RT FEBRUARY/MARCH 2019

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Long Term Investment

Future Investment:

Taking the Long Road to Creating High-Yield Clients of Tomorrow

When I was 22 years of age, I visited the Italian town of Como. Its colourful shuttered houses gathered along a crystal clear shoreline of Lake Como overlooked by towering alpine mountains struck a chord with me that stayed for decades. On the same zero-budget Interrail journey, I took in the French Riviera and the city of Grenoble. In all these places, I found lowbudget simple accommodation above the ‘hostel’ level that allowed me to live those experiences.

Since then, I’ve been back to all these places for three main reasons: 1.because they struck me as magical experiences; 2.because I was welcomed and well treated in all those locations; 3.because although I didn’t have enough money at the time to get the full effect of the visit, I resolved to do it right when I was older and had more money.

This is a salutary lesson that, I believe, few in the thinking of Fáilte Ireland have ever really understood. For many decades, there has been a strong focus on bringing in “high-yield” tourists – those who will leave behind them the maximum quantity of money from their stay in Ireland.

There’s nothing wrong with such a strategy.

In fact, it’s a very good one and one that all those involved in tourism would readily agree with. The only problem is that in the pursuit of the bigger-spending customer, the lower-budget customer has been relatively neglected.

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Over the last 30 years, the structure of Ireland’s accommodation offer has changed. We now have a decent-sized 4 and 5-star hotel sector, a huge and high-quality 3-star sector but below that, it all gets a bit messy. We used to have a great B&B sector that offered simple accommodation living with real people at very cheap rates. The rural B&Bs of the 1960s were a superb example of making the most of what we had to offer the average tourist, bringing business into the marginalised parts of Ireland and offering the tourist simple hospitality that often consisted of a room with a sink and a shared toilet and bathroom down the hall.

The upgrading of B&Bs began in the mid-1980s and continued apace over the next decade, effectively wiping out one class of accommodation and replacing it with another – all in the name of chasing the elusive bigger-spending tourist.

Why bother fishing for minnows when there are salmon out there? In effect, it became a way of getting more money out of the average tourist by increasing the rate they had to pay for an improved product that, the general wisdom told us, was the kind of comfort level the modern tourist insisted on.

Meanwhile, things went at a different pace in other countries. France is the gold standard for tourism. For decades, it has been the world’s leading tourism destination and that didn’t happen by accident. It was a case of long-term thinking and strong organisation.

Everything they do, therefore, merits scrutiny and repetition. One thing that they did not do was to wipe out one lower-level accommodation sector and replace it with a higher-level one. In France, you still have one-star and two-star hotels. At the last count in 2017, there were some 5,800 hotels across the country in that sector. You also still have a strong basic network of localauthority operated campsites, so the desecration of the campsite sector hasn’t happened in the same way that it happened in Ireland – particularly during the Celtic Tiger years when a number of them were closed and the land sold for redevelopment.

Nowadays, an Irish B&B is a palace of luxury. Rooms are ensuite and the standard of care is of the 3-star hotel type. While they still offer that more personalised service with the owners on-site and they often provide a more copious and hearty breakfast than your average 3-star venue, they have long since ceased to be the cheaper option for tourists and are more expensive than certain hotels.

Long Term Investment

All of this explains why efforts such as Air B&B have been successful. This has been in response to a demand from the international tourism market for simplicity – for something where tourists can have an uncomplicated non-touristy experience and not get charged too much. Some people don’t want to spend money on the luxury trappings. They just want to be there and get intimate with the country.

The tourism industry has been dealt a low blow by a government intent on adding to the tax burden of the tourist. This will further erode the tourism satisfaction ratings that have been slipping slightly but surely for the last five years. Fáilte Ireland needs to find more ways of offering better value to visitors. The solution is to bolster the lower-budget accommodation sector and finally follow the lead of the world leaders in the tourism industry. This not only constitutes a way of widening our national tourism offer, it also represents a very important investment in the future.

The tourists who arrive either as backpackers or as young families with little cash to spend but who want to experience the adventure of holidaying in Ireland should be catered for just as well as those who arrive on our shores with fatter wallets. They represent an important sector firstly because they are clients in the hospitality sector that deserve as much respect as the next person. Secondly, they make great economic sense because if they are treated with warmth, dignity and respect on their first visit, they simply won’t be able to wait until they come back to Ireland again; only this time with a larger gang and with more money to spend and they’ll do it properly.

“

Why bother fishing for minnows when there are salmon out there?

”

H&RT FEBRUARY/MARCH 2019

45

ITIC

Is Irish tourism ready for Brexit?

Eoghan O’Mara Walsh, CEO, Irish Tourism Industry Confederation

What on earth did any of us talk about before Brexit? Governments, civil servants, media and industry certainly seem to have debated and deliberated on nothing else since the UK referendum of 2016. Democracy is a dangerous thing. I am sure David Cameron deeply regrets caving into his Eurosceptic critics and putting a binary choice of “leave” or “remain” to the UK electorate. He got the outcome he feared and we have all had to wrestle with the result since.

However “we are where we are” to use that old adage and political, diplomatic and business worlds need to somehow adjust to the new reality.

Of course what that reality might be is a major part of the problem. Hard or soft Brexit, deal or no deal, is totally unclear at time of writing and in recent days the discussion has moved to extending D-day, sorry B-day, beyond March 29th.

Whatever the ultimate outcome though how well positioned is Irish tourism to Brexit? In many ways tourism is all about the movement of people so issues such as tariffs and customs, that dominate debate in other sectors, is of less concern for the Irish tourism industry. However the return of a border on the island of Ireland is very much a worry and a deteriorating UK economy and weak sterling are clear and present dangers to Irish tourism, the country’s largest indigenous industry and biggest regional employer.

Fáilte Ireland have already estimated that a hard Brexit would cost the Irish tourism sector €390 million in its immediate aftermath which is a sizeable wallop. And this in the year that the Government has chosen to increase the tourism Vat rate from 9% to 13.5%. Minister Paschal Donohoe in his Budget speech stated that the Vat increase would bring in €466 million additional income to the exchequer so adding the Vat hike to a hard Brexit and we are talking about close to a billion euro hit to Ireland’s tourism industry. Ouch!

Looking at CSO tourism figures, January has started off positively enough and the extra air and sea access into Ireland provided by carriers such as

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Aer Lingus, Ryanair, Irish Ferries and Stena Line is something that should sustain the sector as the year progresses. However the month of January generally accounts for only 5% of annual tourism traffic and some within the tourism industry feel that 2019 is going to be much less buoyant than in previous years.

Thankfully Irish tourism businesses have conducted a remarkably successful market-diversification strategy in recent years. Britain now accounts for circa 39% of tourism volume and 23% of tourism revenue whereas only 5 years ago these shares were considerably higher. As a result of strong growth from North America, Mainland Europe and Australasia Irish tourism is less dependent on British business. Saying that Britain is still our single largest source market by some distance and being our nearest neighbour it will always be of fundamental importance to industry.

The soon to be launched strategic review of the GB market spearheaded by Tourism Ireland with support from Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Northern Ireland, and input from industry stakeholders, is welcome and identifies that there are significant growth opportunities from the British market notwithstanding current challenges and pressures.

The Vat rise in the budget was very modestly counterbalanced by some investment in tourism agency budgets by the Government. Tourism Ireland have €10 million more this year to promote and advertise the country in overseas markets while Fáilte Ireland received €17 million in increased operational and capex budgets, of which €5 million is being committed to a “Get Brexit Ready” support scheme for the Irish tourism industry. As welcome as this is, the question arises as to whether it is adequate to tackle a challenge as big as Brexit? Tourism businesses can justifiably look enviously at others sectors where Brexit supports are larger and more generous. Both Enterprise Ireland - for businesses in the export space - and Bord Bia - for businesses in the food industry - have financial grants on offer for eligible businesses so that they can mitigate against Brexit. The tourism industry does not have this level of support currently which is a missing piece of the Brexit jigsaw and one that needs to be addressed for a sector that is very vulnerable to the UK’s departure from the EU.

THE FUTURE OF CATERING DESIGN

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* UFS Consumer Online Survey, Cambridge Direction 2018 (n=800) ** Nielsen Retail IRE Grocery Value Sales MAT 04.11.2018 *** Open to bona fide caterers from independent pubs, bars and inns, hotels, restaurants, cafĂŠs, sandwich and snack bars, where H&RT FEBRUARY/MARCH 2019customers are eating onsite. In UK and Ireland aged 18+, prize draw closes 30/04/19, terms and conditions apply, see website for details.