Hotel & Restaurant Times Dec Jan

DECEMBER/JANUARY ’20

€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

Audrey Gaffney

New Lease of Life for the Fairways Hotel

Year in Review A Good Year But Not a Great Year

Are You Turning a Blind Eye? Mental Health in the Workplace

Sandymount Hotel Leading the Green Revolution

www.hotelandrestauranttimes.ie

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Contents

Editorial 4 News

5

ITIC 11 Bookassist 12 Audrey Gaffney - Fairways Hotel

15

Tourism Careers

20

Tourism Ireland

2019 - Year in Review

22 24

Fáilte News

28

IHI Banquet & Hospitality Management Awards

30

Flogas Launches Carbon Offsetting Solution

33

Chef Network

34

IFSA

P. 40

36

Tourism Training

38

Are You Turning a Blind Eye?

40

Pay to Compete

42

Sandymount Hotel - Green Revolution

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Oonagh Cremins - New IHI President

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P. 44 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, Chef Network, Tourism Ireland, Conor Power, Fáilte Ireland, Frank Corr, Eoghan O’Mara Walsh, Bookassist - Claire Sawier & Dr Des O'Mahony, IFSA. Graphic Design: Tara Mccormack Printing: Turners of Longford Online: Managing Digital

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

New decade, new challenges It’s a new year - a new decade - and a blank page has opened for tourism.

Despite everything that happened in 2019, this month sees the industry gaze into the crystal ball so that it can plan for revenue, sales, personnel, targets, and much, much more.

We may also be in the throes of a general election in the next month or so. If that happens, I’m sure the industry hopes we get a real Minster for Tourism. Deputy Shane Ross has not dressed himself in glory when it comes to his tourism brief. I have never, in my 21 years of operation, come across a minister who doesn't seem to understand, or appreciate, tourism.

editorial

After the bust, Leo Varadkar and Paschal Donohoe acknowledged tourism as critical in repairing and generating much needed revenue for the country. Over the last few budgets, the amount of support given to the sector has been piecemeal. The removal of the 9% VAT, and its subsequent increase to a 13.5 % rate, was short-sighted and utterly misguided.

No amount of spin will change the opinion of the majority of stakeholders within the sector.

If there will be a change of government, let's hope we get a minister who will work with enthusiasm for the sector and ensure it is heard at the cabinet table.

There are still issues that the industry must address. One area of concern is pay levels.

Unfortunately, hospitality is at the bottom of the league when compared with other industries. The demand for staff was unprecedented in 2019 and brings challenges and concerns for the future of the sector.

The recent announcement from Minister Heather Humphries, regarding the work permit issue, is welcomed. However, continual negativity about the sector from some operators, combined with concerns around pay rates and conditions, are making it unattractive to a lot of people. A head in the sand approach is not helping. New and innovative ways of paying staff must be undertaken. If this doesn’t happen, we could see the demise of a lot of businesses, which in turn could impact our tourism market.

2020 will be a challenge, but I firmly believe the industry will rise to the challenges with the positive, matter-of-fact attitude it has done in the past.

And Minister Harris: Forget about calories on menus.

There are more pressing issues that your department has to address.

Cyril McAree editor

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news

NEWS How are you Keeling?

Keelings Select were top of their field at the Bord Bia Food and Drink Awards 2019. Bord Bia presented nine awards for excellence to some of Ireland’s foremost organisations and brands at the biennial Food and Drink Awards in Dublin’s RDS. Keelings Select received the Domestic Success Award.

Pictured are (l-r): Aisling Boggan, National Account Manager; Ger Foley, Leinster Account Manager; Cormac Dunlea, Business Development Manager, Cork; Caroline Keeling, Keeling Group Chief Executive; Colm Bury, Managing Director; Joe Bergin, Financial Director; Mariana Suvorova, Sales Executive, Dublin; Peter Thompson, Senior Sales Executive, Dublin; Alan Fay, Systems & Controls Accountant; Timmy Moloney, Sales Executive, Tipperary.

Coffee for Cork Cork Airport is the first airport in Ireland to roast its own coffee beans as it welcomes the opening of a new sustainable café concept, Blue Bird Coffee Roasters.

Commenting on the launch of the new café, Brian Gallagher, Head of Aviation & Commercial Business Development at Cork Airport, said: “At Cork Airport, we take our sustainability commitment very seriously, and this year we signed a landmark commitment to become net zero for our carbon emissions by 2050 at the latest. Blue Bird Roastery Café’s sustainable model works in tandem with this, with a focus on waste reduction and segregation, reducing general waste and in turn increasing recycling.”

Meeting of minds Meetingsbooker.com have announced the launch of new German meetings booking platform with dfv media group. The German operator has selected Meetingsbooker.com to roll out a class leading booking engine for the German speaking market.

From a small meeting, to a large conference, dfv's Tagungsplaner.de engine will now streamline the search and selection of these meetings venues for the corporate user. With access to over 137,000 meetings spaces globally, the tool will bring an unrivaled choice of hotel, conference and alternative meeting spaces to the consumer.

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news

Whiskey in the jar

Cheque it out

Jameson Distillery Bow St. has been named the World’s Leading Distillery Tour at the World Travel Awards (WTA) for the second year in a row. The awards acknowledge, reward and celebrate excellence in global travel and tourism. The finalist list included Macallan, Hennessy, Jack Daniels and Jose Cuervo.

Windward Management donated €15,000 to Karin Brath from Multiple Sclerosis Ireland, following a charity event in Farnham Estate.

Ciao Irlanda!

More than one million Italians recently saw ads for Ireland, including a 15-second Ireland video running on screens in airports and shopping centres around Italy, and in busy metro stations in Rome, Milan and Brescia. The ads were part of Tourism Ireland’s kickstart campaign to position Ireland as a holiday destination for 2020.

Office of high regard Tierney’s Office Automation Ltd., a leading independent provider of IT solutions within the hospitality and SME sector across Ireland and the UK, have announced that they have achieved ISO 27001:2013 Certification from Certification Europe Ltd. By attaining the ISO standard, Tierney’s has proved that it has implemented a best in class information security management system (ISMS) to include IT Managed Services, IT Security, Cloud Services and Hospitality Solutions to its clients from its offices in Ennis, Co.Clare, including remote staff in Ireland and the UK. Tierney’s delivers a range of IT Solutions, Support and Consultancy Services to the International Hotel, Restaurant, Leisure and SME Industries, across the UK and Ireland.

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news

Traveller's delight Condé Nast Traveler today announced its 2020 Gold List with Adare Manor recognised as one of the best hotels in the world.

Sherry on the top One of Ireland’s leading luxury five-star hotels, Ashford Castle, has appointed Sherry Communications to manage its public relations and communications requirements.

The Dublin-based consultancy was awarded the contract, which commenced in January 2020, after a competitive pitch.

Tidy towns Towns across the country have been allocated funding through new €15.5m Fáilte Ireland Destination Towns Scheme, launched earlier this year by the National Tourism Development Authority. Up to €500,000, per local authority, will be allocated in two rounds by Fáilte Ireland to boost the attractiveness and tourism appeal of towns nationwide.

Cannes you dig it?

Tourism businesses from the island of Ireland with Joyce McElroy (front, centre), Geraldine Egan (front, third left) and Hillarie McGuinness (front, fourth left), all Tourism Ireland, at ILTM in Cannes.

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news

The art of Ireland Iris Wang, Tourism Ireland, accepting the award for best literary and artistic destination for Chinese travellers, at the Stars Awards in Shanghai.

Sherlock wins manager award at Castleknock Andrew Sherlock, manager at 22 Bar & Restaurant at Castleknock Hotel, has been awarded Manager of the Quarter at the hotel for Q4 of 2019.

Land of promise Elfie Yang, Tourism Ireland, with the trophy for ‘most promising overseas destination’ at the Weibo Golden Footprint Cultural Tourism Summit in the Sichuan province.

RAI sees red over calorie count The Restaurants Association of Ireland have described themselves as "outraged" at proposed new legislation, which would see displaying calories on menus becoming mandatory for all restaurants, pubs, catering establishments and eateries.

“It looks like this proposed legislation for presenting calories on menus is being rammed through by the Government with little thought about the negative effects it will have. This really is nanny-statism at its best," said Adrian Cummins, CEO of the Restaurants Association of Ireland.

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news

I have seen the light Tourism Ireland recently a launched TV advertising campaign in France, to position the island of Ireland ‘top of mind’ with French travellers. The campaign ran for over two weeks and will reached around 13.5 million viewers around France on some of the country’s main TV channels.

All on board Dalton Philips, daa Chief Executive, Pat O’Doherty, Chief Executive of ESB, and Garret O’Neill, General Manager for the Crowne Plaza Hotels, are pictured as Ireland’s first electric bus completed its inaugural trip, bringing passengers from the Crown Plaza Hotel to Dublin Airport, to mark the milestone in Ireland’s transition to a low-carbon future.

Call for VAT to go The Restaurants Association of Ireland are calling on the government to reduce the food VAT rate, after recent figures released by the CSO show a worrying decrease in tourism figures for 2019. The figures cover the period between July to September 2019 and show that, compared to the same period in 2018, nights spent in Ireland by overseas travellers decreased by 4.5%.

You are permitted Fáilte Ireland is welcoming measures announced by Heather Humphreys, Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, to increase the number of employment permits granted to overseas chefs coming to work in Ireland. Commis chefs with two years experience can now apply for an employment permit. Until now, this grade of chef was ineligible for a permit. The Minister has also announced that the number of chefs, of all grades, to be granted a permit will no longer be subject to a quota. Previously there was a cap of 610 permits.

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news

Bookassist voted #1 in all 4 categories at HotelTechAwards 2020 Bookassist has been crowned winner in all 4 of the hotel marketing categories it entered in the 2020 Hotel Tech Report Awards. The awards highlight best of breed companies across key categories of the hotel tech stack.

A perfect Manor Adare Manor, recently voted No. 1 resort in Europe and No. 5 in the world at the Conde Nast Traveler’s 2019 Readers’ Choice Awards has launched a new book: Adare Manor: The Renaissance of an Irish Country House by Turtle Bunbury. Pictured at the launch at Adare Manor were: Louise Cantillon, radio presenter and journalist; Elaina Fitzgerald, Kane, The Fitzgerald Woodlands House Hotel; and Neilus Stackpoole, radio presenter.

Over 100 top hotel tech companies competed for a chance to win the industry’s most prestigious awards with more than 25,000 hoteliers casting their vote.

Hotel industry professionals worldwide voted Bookassist the Best Booking Engine, Best Digital Marketing Agency, Best Metasearch Management and Best Website CMS.

The HotelTechAwards are based on thousands of verified expert reviews including customers and partners and are not influenced by analyst opinion or status as a Hotel Tech Report customer. (Learn more about the HotelTechAwards scoring criteria breakdown) “We are extremely grateful for the sheer number of clients and partners who came out in force to positively review and recommend Bookassist. We believe that direct business should be at the heart of a hotel’s strategy and clearly our clients agree with our proven approach to winning at direct”, said Dr Des O’Mahony, Bookassist CEO and Founder.

See what some users have to say about Bookassist solutions in their own words: “I would have no hesitation in recommending Bookassist to a hotel who is looking to drive more revenue through their own website and away from OTAs” “I have been using Bookassist's reservation system for 3 years and I have seen a significant increase of over 100% in the number of direct bookings. I like the personal approach of Bookassist staff and technical innovation” “We are seeing great success with Bookassist's V10 Mobile Optimised Booking Engine, our mobile traffic, and revenue is increasing and our customers are enjoying a great experience.”

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Top post at Mount Juliet The Mount Juliet Estate has announced the appointment of Siobhán O’Sullivan as Director of Sales & Marketing. O’Sullivan has over 20 years’ experience within various facets of the hospitality industry and within the luxury 5 star arena. Starting out in the well-known Mespil Hotel, she worked in management roles in the Stillorgan Park Hotel, the Johnstown House Hotel, and the Park Plaza in Tyrrelstown. In 2010, Siobhán moved to Belfast to take up the Director of Sales and Marketing role with the Fitzwilliam Hotel Belfast.

ITIC

Tourism: Poster child of the Irish economic recovery Eoghan O’Mara Walsh, CEO, Irish Tourism Industry Confederation

Looking back on the last decade 2010 saw the nadir in terms of tourism arrivals into the country as global financial woes externally, and the cost base of the Celtic Tiger domestically, conspired to torpedo Irish tourism. At the start of the decade Ireland’s tourism industry was in a vulnerable position with a bleak outlook. And yet 10 short years later Irish tourism is at a new peak and is the country’s largest indigenous industry and biggest regional employer.

The stunning decade that Irish tourism has just enjoyed is in large part down to a dynamic and innovative industry. Every one of the jobs generated has been created by Irish tourism businesses, large and small. Every one of the international tourists has arrived by plane or ferry. Every service and product, from bed to meal to visitor attraction, has been provided by tourism and hospitality companies up and down the length and breadth of the country.

The story of Irish tourism’s dramatic recovery will make a great case-study for how an export-oriented industry can bounce back when enabled by positive Government policies.

However only by working in close collaboration with the state could industry deliver such growth. The Convention Centre Dublin, Terminal 2 and marketing concepts such as the Wild Atlantic Way were all effectively public-private initiatives and they have all reaped significant dividends.

2010 was the year that the troika came to town. NAMA had just been born and was estimated to hold a controlling stake in 1 in 8 Irish hotels. The state had a significant shareholding in Aer Lingus who had just recorded an €81 million loss and 25% less international visitors were coming to Ireland than 3 years previously.

All business sectors suffered as austerity and contraction kicked in but the one industry to return to growth quickly and most strongly was the tourism economy. Why? Well as an export industry tourism was not wedded to domestic economic strife and as international markets improved so did Irish tourism’s performance. Crucially though, at the instigation of industry, the Government saw the sector’s potential early on in the financial crisis and introduced pro-tourism policies that enabled the sector to respond positively. The Vat rate for tourism services was lowered to 9%, the airport tax was suspended, and concepts such as the Gathering encouraged the diaspora to experience Ireland again. Before long tourism was motoring ahead and within 5 years had grown by a remarkable 45% and became the key jobs generator within Ireland’s economic recovery. Today just shy of 10 million international visitors come to Ireland on an annual basis and the tourism industry is worth over €9 billion.

Not only is tourism one of the few industries that can provide regional economic balance – for instance Center Parcs created 1,000 permanent jobs in Longford last year - it is also a massive net contributor to the Irish fiscal wallet. In 2019 the state spent €175 million on tourism services - essentially funding the 2 state agencies Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland - but the exchequer will get back over €2 billion in direct tourism related taxes. That’s a return of 11.4 to 1.

Politics and politicians do matter. Not necessarily in tablethumping rhetoric but instead in delivering enabling innovative policies that allow tourism businesses to prosper. The tourism industry was fortunate that for the first half of the decade the Government primarily through political leadership at the very top - with Taoiseach Enda Kenny an ex-Tourism Minister – put tourism at the heart of its economic agenda. A key political item during this period was the state’s sale of its share in Aer Lingus to IAG. There was much political criticism at the time but Paschal Donohoe, Minister at the time, supported by the tourism industry took the right and brave decision. Aer Lingus has thrived within IAG and its expansion across the Atlantic has been positive for tourism and allowed Dublin to become a key hub between North America and the European bloc.

And politics still matters. The success of the tourism sector has begun to show signs of strain in 2019 as Brexit and rising costs of business impact. In the last couple of years tourism’s growth seems to have been taken for granted by Government and officials. The Vat rate was hiked up by 50% in 2019 for tourism businesses and there is a decrease by Government in current budgets for 2020. If good policies enable industry to succeed, then continuity is needed rather than complacency which only acts as a hand-brake on growth. If this decade is to see sustainable and environmentally-conscious growth then it’s time for Government at highest level to react to the needs of this invaluable sector, as it did so wisely in 2010, and deliver competitive, pro-business policies during these more challenging times.

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Time to Talk

By Claire Sawier and Dr Des O'Mahony The Personal Technology Decade

Since the launch of the iPhone in 2007, the subsequent deployment of 4G and now the imminent 5G roll-out, the pace of technology change has reached sprint levels. It’s clear the pace is not slowing.

Apple kickstarted the mobile revolution, but it was when cumbersome 3G was replaced by the faster 4G at the beginning of the last decade that smartphones immersed themselves deep into our lives. The power of the smartphone brought companies such as Airbnb and Uber and now the world is firmly in our pocket with smartphones central to our everyday lives.

The last decade also saw the launch of digital voice assistants with Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant all arriving. Voice brings a whole new mobile experience introducing the idea of voice commands and hands-free device control.

It has been predicted that this coming year we will reach 200 billion voice search queries per month1, and that by 2023 there will be over 8 billion digital voice assistants in use2. Today’s consumers are searching for quicker and more efficient ways of accomplishing tasks and voice is quickly fulfilling that need in many cases.

The mobile experience has been further enhanced by the smart watch and by the arrival of smart wireless earbuds and wearables. The Apple Watch revolutionised the market when their fashionable device launched in 2015. Wireless earbuds replaced headphone jacks, again led by Apple when they decided to remove the headphone jack from the iPhone 7 in 2016. Addressing the growing need for convenience, earbuds offered freedom to move

around without having to deal with cables. It may seem like a trivial thing, but Apple’s earbuds are evolving into a clever ecosystem enabler, bringing Siri to more users and developing into an $8B contribution to Apple’s topline as of this year by some estimates (yes, billion).

Devices that appeared in the last decade have evolved quickly and have fundamentally changed how we communicate, how we organise, and generally how we live our everyday lives.

The Social Decade

The smartphone revolution led directly to the social media revolution. Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest and more recently TikTok were all launched in the 2010s on the back of the smartphone, offering new ways for consumers to stay connected and share their views. (Whether this was really a social revolution or an antisocial revolution is debatable.)

In 2018, an estimated 2.65 billion people were using social media worldwide, a number projected to increase to almost 3.1 billion in 20213. When you consider that the world population is 7.7 billion4, that is a staggering penetration rate.

As broadband became faster over the decade watching video on our phones and tablets also took off. TVs have got smarter and new streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video now bring to our fingertips entire content libraries. Netflix has amassed 158 million subscribers and has normalised the expectation of getting the content you want, when you want it5. With the super speed that 5G promises the market is set to get a lot more crowded with new players such as Apple and Disney beginning to make their mark.

Consumers now get a highly personalised experience on their devices, with social media and other services adapting by algorithm to each consumer’s preferences and consumption habits. No one sees the same online anymore, and that fact has consequences for hospitality also.

Consumers are looking for authenticity and are increasingly more influenced by user generated content (60% in 2019) and increasingly less so by brand (19% in 2019)6. As a result user generated content, dark social, and ephemeral content (content with an expiration date) are all growing in both popularity and influence.

https://econsultancy.com/the-future-of-voice-search-2020-and-beyond/ https://www.juniperresearch.com/press/press-releases/digital-voice-assistants-in-use-to-8-million-2023 3 https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users/

https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/ https://www.engadget.com/2019/10/16/netflix-q3-earnings/ 6 https://stackla.com/resources/reports/bridging-the-gap-consumer-marketing-perspectives-oncontent-in-the-digital-age/

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Time to Talk

The Data Revolution

and call for your own personal ‘robot butler’ via each room’s built-in voice assistant9. The future is now!

In 2019 5G wireless arrived, creating a stir with its ability to push the boundaries of technology on a much grander scale than was ever possible with 4G. 4G was a 5x improvement in speed and latency over 3G, while 5G is a 10x to 100x improvement in speed and latency over standard 4G7. In practical terms that means movies will take seconds, not minutes to download. (Once you have the upgraded device and upgraded network access of course.)

The challenge for hospitality however is to remain “hospitable” and human where possible even as more and more technology reaches into the guests’ stay.

Looking Ahead

At the start of this new decade the traditional lines between “computer” and “mobile device” are increasingly blurred. The mobile revolution may have started with the first iPhone in 2007 but the arrival of 5G brings mobile to a whole new level.

The rapid advancement of emerging smart technologies is made possible by the decrease in latency that 5G brings, enabling applications that require real-time access to data and analysis.

Without 5G, going to and fro to corporate servers takes too long for mainstream use of “intelligence”. But 5G access brings a major change for technology services such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, virtual reality, augmented reality, internet of things (IoT), connected cities, autonomous or self-driving cars, remote robotic surgery etc. The list of possibilities is endless once data flow is seamless and instantaneous.

95% of internet users have a smartphone10 so Bookassist’s advice should come as no surprise: “To be successful, 2020 and beyond must be viewed under the Mobile lens.

A mobile first strategy has never been so important”, according to Bookassist CEO Des O’Mahony at the BTO Conference in Florence in March 2019.

5G bandwidth lets you simultaneously connect your smartphone, tablet, laptop, virtual reality headset, wireless thermostat, video game console, smart locks, wireless security cameras, all to the network without worrying that they’ll stop working when they’re all on at the same time.

The winners will be those who can leverage growing amounts of data, new technologies and tools to offer a superior customer experience while at the same time addressing the concerns around privacy and safety.

5G brings much bigger opportunities for hoteliers no longer burdened with the restrictions of bandwidth. The average person has 3.4 electronic devices8 and usually brings a few of them wherever they go.

As we enter this new decade what can you actually do to take advantage of these changes to better market your hotel and what can you as a hotelier do to gain competitive advantage?

Unlike 4G, 5G can support all the new interconnected tech coming.

Closer to our own industry, we all expect that hotel rooms will increasingly become smart rooms with potentially dozens of IoT sensors monitoring and updating the status of each room.

Furthermore fast and mobile network access can power edge computing to analyse huge amounts of data giving hotels a much better understanding of each individual room no matter how many rooms it has.

There are a number of the areas we think are priorities for the year ahead and we will be tackling them all in detail in the weeks and months ahead.

Focus on a mobile strategy or die

Don’t read any further unless you fully digest this one!

Traffic, and increasingly revenue, are switching more and more to mobile. Expect the concept of desktop versus mobile to disappear as we simply talk about “access”.

The concept of a fully automated stay was introduced at Alibaba’s FlyZoo Hotel in China. You use their app to preview and purchase your room, check-in without an attendant, unlock your room via biometrics, https://www.howtogeek.com/340002/what-is-5g-and-how-fast-will-it-be/ https://blog.globalwebindex.com/chart-of-the-day/digital-consumers-own-3-point-2-connected-devices/

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https://www.businessinsider.com/alibaba-hotel-of-the-future-robots-ai-2019-10?r=US&IR=T https://libranda.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Report_on_devices_ownership_usage_July2019.pdf 9

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Time to Talk

Analyse your data and use it to enable real-time decision making.

The challenge of today’s data is the sheer scale of it, so we need more systems to digest and analyse it and only tell us what is important about our business. Relevance and actionable data are what matter to give us the pulse of our business without the noise.

This is an area Bookassist will increasingly tackle for our hotel partners. Watch this space.

Personalise. The explosion in data tracking gives us huge amounts of information on our customers. And the advancement of machine learning and AI will allow brands to personalise more effectively. But there’s a balance to be had, since we also want to retain the individual personality of the hotel we run and the human-level service we bring. Personalisation doesn’t mean everything is different for everyone, it just means being more aware of the individual consumer’s needs and desires.

Up your video game. Faster 5G enables us to consume video

streaming on any device so video marketing should be a priority.

With the low latency that 5G brings live video chats will allow you to communicate in real time with no lag time.

Enhance the customer experience with chat bots, AR (augmented

reality), VR (virtual reality) and IoT (internet of things). But be cautious also and don’t spend unless technology is giving a proven return.

Focus carefully on local SEO as voice search continues to grow.

Write conversational FAQs that optimise for Voice. Focus on creating useful FAQ questions and answers on your website that voice assistants can pull from when answering queries. Use a casual conversational tone to address voice search queries that tend to begin with the 5 W’s of who, what, where, when and why.

Invest more in location marketing. Target mobile users using mobile geolocation marketing practices such as mobile audience and location targeting.

Encourage user-generated content. Leverage the growing opportunity to generate authentic and positive content by

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encouraging guests providing interesting activities, personalised experiences, and share-worthy attractions during a stay.

Make use of ephemeral content to engage visitors. Give users a more playful and less polished view of the brand “behind the scenes” for authenticity by sharing candid photos and videos. The short-lived nature of ephemeral content can also be used to elicit an immediate response from users.

Investigate opportunities through paid search. The number of platforms available is growing and the effectiveness of those platforms is increasing through the use of AI and audience segmentation, so take advantage of these new opportunities to increase visibility and grow revenue.

Conclusion

The pace of technology change has reached sprint levels. Unless hoteliers apply laser-sharp 20:20 vision to the decade ahead they could easily get lost in a technology fog.

With so much more change to come, it's more important than ever to select the right technology and digital strategy partners to guide you through the decade ahead. It’s equally important to stay focused on core technologies and services that can deliver, and not to be distracted by new and shiny things that are as yet unproven.

Bookassist’s award-winning mobile first and data led approach is well positioned to successfully build the online direct booking channel for hotels as we enter the decade ahead.

Bookassist, (bookassist.com) is the multi-award-winning technology and digital strategy partner for hotels worldwide.

Claire Sawier is Head of Marketing and Dr Des O’Mahony is CEO and Founder at Bookassist, (bookassist.com), the multiaward-winning technology and digital strategy partner for hotels worldwide.

Audrey Gaffney

New Life for the

Fairways Hotel The Fairways Hotel has been a part of the urban and folk landscape of Dundalk since the 1960s and, after being closed for a number of years, it rose again like a phoenix from the ashes in the form of a modern four-star hotel that was reopened last November.

The firm behind the design and execution of the concept for the thoroughly re-modelled Fairways is Audrey Gaffney Associates with Amy O’Sullivan acting as lead designer and project manager. Combining their passion and skills in both interior design and architecture, their unique offering is one that has been blazing a trail through the Irish hotel industry in recent years.

“It was more or less a complete re-build,” says Audrey of the stunning transformation of the Fairways. “The conference centre was retained and also one of the bedroom blocks but the rest of the hotel was basically re-modelled completely.

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Audrey Gaffney

“We increased some of the bedroom sizes and essentially stripped it all back and started again from scratch. It’s now a 99% brand new hotel, even though it’s been there for so many years and it’s such a well-known hotel in Dundalk.

The choices that were made in the re-vamp were, driven by what customers were seeking from a modern hotel and, in particular, what locally based customers were looking for in a modern hotel – for today and for the future.

Supplier to the Trade of : “The big thing for us is how the customer’s journey evolves entering and going through the hotel and what is required around Dundalk. That was taken into account when we were trying to complete the general layout.

“So, they have an inviting reception area now, that then leads towards a bar which in turn leads into a dining restaurant area. There’s a completely separate breakfast area that can be closed off or booked for private receptions.”

The new design incorporates two new meeting rooms and a conference and pre-drinks area. The new Fairways is a hotel that is designed to cover a number of bases – from medium-sized and large weddings to corporate events of various types. As Audrey points out, the hotel would be seen as having a significant corporate function, being located just off the M1 motorway (Junction 16) in an industrialised hub such as Dundalk.

The design, therefore, needed to reflect that important aspect of its business.

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Kitchen Sinks/Taps

Kitchen Worktops

Kitchen Accessories

Sheeting Materials

Bespoke Cutting/Edging Service

Fencing & Decking

Audrey Gaffney

“It was important to create a modern feel and look but also to maintain the cosiness and warmth – and to give it its own identity.”

Creating interiors that are aesthetically pleasing, was imperative.

It’s a case, she says, of combining a businessoriented hotel with the right degree of charm and a sense of belonging so that it becomes more than just a functional edifice.

It was designed from an operational point of view, catering for various crowd sizes and customer types; ensuring all spaces worked efficiently for both customers and staff.

The Fairways re-vamp was a €12 million project that was instigated by successful businessman and former hotelier Pat O’Callaghan, who purchased the property in 2015, promising to breathe new life into the old hotel in his home region. This 113-room four-star establishment is his coming good on that commitment and the hotel is currently part of the iNua hotel group. Ireland’s leading regional hotel group has a number of other prestigious properties in its management portfolio, including the Muckross Park Hotel & Spa in Killarney, the Hillgrove Hotel in Monaghan and the Kilkenny Hibernian Hotel.

Did the fact that iNua were involved influence the design of the building and décor in giving it a particularly Irish slant?

“The greater influence was more local,” says Audrey. “It was more in the sense of ‘Dundalk’ rather than a sense of Irishness; it was more about giving Dundalk something to be proud of. When iNua came on board, their expertise made it clear the kind of high expectations that many Irish clients of the hotel would have.”

For the completion of the project, there was what Audrey describes wherever possible, local suppliers and tradesmen were used.

The hospitality sector isn’t an area they have specifically targeted but it has become a good fit for Audrey Gaffney Associates. It is, as she says, all about looking after the client and this is something, they have become particularly good at. “The design is

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Audrey Gaffney

led very much by what the guest requires and their expectations. We spend time with our clients. We conduct brand research for them. We de-construct their brief and throw things in the mix that they may not have thought about. We also spend time talking to their sales and marketing divisions to understand what their particular requirements are in terms of how they want to market the hotel.

“What we are trying to do is to drive the revenue for the hotel, to keep guests returning and to enhance their experience. We focus on our clients’ guests and we map that journey out for them.”

Based in Trim, Co Meath, Audrey Gaffney Associates have had what she describes as a busy year in 2019, working on such prestigious projects as the Carlton Hotel Dublin Airport and continuing work at the Castleknock Hotel in Dublin.

As well as work in Ireland, they have also worked on projects abroad in UK and Spain: “We haven’t been pushing for it (the international work) but probably about 95% of our work is through word of mouth. Clients we have worked with before are taking on new projects or often it is someone new to whom we’ve been recommended by a previous client.”

“We have a lot of plans for 2020, which will become public over the next couple of months. We’ve worked with some really great clients and have had some fantastic projects this year. We’ve just recently completed work on the restaurant at the Heritage Hotel in Co. Laois.

“It was such a great year and we’re looking forward to more excitement in 2020.”

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Fáilte Ireland Interview

Tourism Careers

Last summer, we spoke to Paul Hayden, Head of Tourism Careers at Fáilte Ireland about the National Tourism Development Authority’s plans to tackle the shortage in labour supply in the tourism industry. Six months on, exciting progress has been made.

This month, after extensive research and planning, Fáilte Ireland is set to launch a major promotional campaign to motivate more people to choose a career in tourism and hospitality.

“One of the key insights from the research we undertook was that those who work in tourism and hospitality industry are significantly more positive about it than those who do not work in the sector” says Paul. “A career in tourism is often associated with low pay and long hours and many are unaware of the diverse range of roles and the opportunities available. But the fact is, there are some amazing career options in the tourism industry, from operational roles through to management and specialist skills such as digital media and marketing.”

“Tourism is one of the largest industries in Ireland. It currently contributes €7.5bn in revenue each year to the exchequer and employs more people than agriculture, education or construction. Over the next five years, the revised Government targets for tourism growth will see the number of jobs required increase by 50,000 so it really important that we change the perception of working in tourism and hospitality and demonstrate what a career in the sector can offer.”

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“

Tourism is one of the largest industries in Ireland and to grow this further, we need to change the perception of what a career in tourism can offer

“

Over the last few months, the Tourism and Hospitality Careers Oversight Group (THCOG), chaired by Fáilte Ireland, has been working on a strategy to address current and future labour supply and skills. The strategy focuses on five key areas that the group believes will drive change; career promotion, employment connections, recruitment and retention, curriculum alignment and mapping existing provision.

Fáilte Ireland Interview

The campaign will initially target students considering their CAO applications, primarily through digital channels and social media, with further activity planned across television and radio throughout the year which will also target job changers and those returning to work, explains Paul.

“Today’s students are looking to the future and thinking about their career prospects and financial security, yet they are often overwhelmed by the choice available. We will be showcasing a career in tourism and hospitality as a credible choice, demonstrating the diversity of roles on offer and celebrating the 260,000 people who currently work in the sector to build a sense of pride in the industry. All promotional activity will drive people to www.tourismcareers.ie, a new digital hub that will become the first point of call for those considering a course or career in tourism.”

The website will provide information on the tourism sector and the careers available as well as providing routes to entry with information on the courses available and a job search engine. As the campaign evolves, Fáilte Ireland will partner with the industry and education providers on engaging content for the hub.

Educational research consistently shows the importance of Guidance Counsellors in influencing course choice among Leaving Certificate students and, as part of the campaign, Fáilte Ireland will work directly with Guidance Counsellors and other key stakeholders in secondary schools to develop their knowledge of the tourism industry and the career opportunities available.

“We will be educating Guidance Counsellors on the diversity of roles available in the sector and the career options in their region for graduates, addressing any misconceptions they might have and highlighting where courses in further and higher education can add value. We will also be promoting our sector to the students themselves. This will play a key part in making sure this group are clear on the long-term career opportunities the tourism sector can offer” says Paul.

There has also been progress in other areas with the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation announcing an increase in the number of employment permits to be granted to overseas chefs coming to work in Ireland, which Fáilte Ireland believes will significantly help to alleviate the skills shortage and enable the tourism sector to fill some of the current chef vacancies across the country.

The National Tourism Development Authority also recently launched a partnership with the Great Place to Work Institute, which recognises the best workplaces at country, regional and global levels.

“We’re working with the Great Place to Work Institute on a new award - the 2020 Spotlight Series Tourism and Hospitality Award, which will highlight best practice in career development in tourism and hospitality” says Paul. “We asked those working in the industry to submit their unique, innovative and exciting stories and will be announcing the winner at the Great Place to Work Awards in February 2020. We believe this award will help to showcase the industry as a key choice for top talent seeking to forge a rewarding career path.”

The promotional campaign is just one of five objectives set out by the Tourism and Hospitality Careers Oversight Group (THCOG) in 2019. The group, chaired by Fáilte Ireland, has brought a variety of invested parties together to implement a strategy to address current and future labour supply and skills requirements in the tourism sector. Members include a number of industry representative bodies such as the Restaurant Association of Ireland (RAI) and Irish Hotels Federations (IHF); education providers such as Education and Training Boards Ireland and Institutes of Technology, as well as government departments and state agencies.

To find out more about Fáilte Ireland’s new tourism careers promotional campaign, check out www.tourismcareers.ie from the 20th January 2020.

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Tourism Ireland

Tourism Ireland launches 2020 marketing plans Tourism Ireland recently launched details of its new three-year strategy for 2020-2022 and its marketing plans to promote the island of Ireland overseas in 2020, at an event attended by Tourism Minister Brendan Griffin and around 500 tourism industry leaders from around the country. The aim is to grow overseas tourism revenue to €6.54 billion (+13%) and visitor numbers to 12 million (+7%), by 2022.

The 2020-2022 strategy has been designed to be both flexible and sustainable – while delivering further growth in overseas tourism and supporting the industry across Ireland. Tourism Ireland aims to spread the benefits of tourism more broadly across the island on a year-round basis and to address the issues of capacity, to ensure the visitor experience continues to be world-class. The new strategy is built on a set of sustainable destination marketing principles.

Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland; Tourism Minister Brendan Griffin; and Joan O’Shaughnessy, Chairman of Tourism Ireland, at the launch of Tourism Ireland’s marketing strategy for 2020-2022 and its marketing plans for 2020.

Phase two of Tourism Ireland’s global campaign – ‘Fill Your Heart With Ireland’ – was revealed at the launch. As in phase one of the campaign, the new ad features less visited attractions and locations (including Trim Castle, Waterford Greenway, EPIC – the Irish Emigration Museum and Rathlin Island). From January 2020, the ‘Fill Your Heart With Ireland’ campaign will be rolled out in over 20 markets around the globe.

The period 2020-2022 will see Tourism Ireland transform its digital platforms and re-develop its entire suite of Ireland.com websites – which attracted more than 23 million visits in 2019 – to ensure its digital marketing continues to be ‘best in class’ in the 2020s. It will use big data and artificial intelligence to reach potential visitors; this new technology will also allow Tourism Ireland to re-target visitors and potential visitors with personalised messages and offers, designed to appeal to their specific interests.

Neil Grant, Celtic Ross Hotel; Aisling McDermott, Tourism Ireland; Seamus Heaney, Pure Cork; and Brian Gallagher, Cork Airport.

Targeting luxury travel business for Ireland Twenty-four (24) Irish tourism businesses joined Tourism Ireland in Cannes recently, for the annual International Luxury Travel Market (ILTM). ILTM is an invitation-only event for the global luxury travel industry – attracting around 1,800 influential travel agents who design unique, luxury travel itineraries for their high networth international clients, from 80 different countries.

Luxury travel editors and journalists from around 200 international publications also attended. It’s a fourday event which takes place each year at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes – involving a programme of bespoke one-to-one appointments and networking sessions and an excellent opportunity for the tourism businesses from Ireland to meet, and do business with, the influential travel agents and media. Pictured at ILTM are the participating tourism businesses from Ireland with Joyce McElroy (front, centre), Geraldine Egan (front, third left) and Hillarie McGuinness (front, fourth left), all Tourism Ireland.

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Tourism Ireland

Killarney wins major German travel conference for 2020 DER Touristik, a major German tour operator and the largest tour operator from Mainland Europe to the island of Ireland, has announced it will host its prestigious annual travel academy in Killarney, in October 2020. The event is always held in leading travel destinations – most recently in Cuba in 2019 and in Finland in 2018. Killarney beat off challenges from a number of other top destinations to host the 2020 event.

The congress is DER Touristik’s annual event and will take place over three nights, in October 2020. Around 300 top German travel agents, as well as influential travel journalists and senior managers from DER Touristik – are expected to participate.

In addition to attending the travel academy, delegates will have the opportunity to participate in specially designed pre-conference tours across the island of Ireland – to enhance their knowledge of the tourism experiences and attractions on offer here and allow them to sample our legendary hospitality and welcome.

As well as generating valuable off-season business, giving the local economy a significant boost during a traditionally quieter time, the annual travel academy always helps boost German visitor numbers to the host destination in subsequent years.

Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said: “It is a tremendous honour for Killarney to have won this prestigious event in the face of competition from other destinations. Tourism Ireland is delighted to have played its part in securing this event, which confirms Killarney and Ireland as a world-class destination. Germany is our third-largest source of visitors and in 2018 we welcomed 784,000 German visitors to the island of Ireland.

This travel academy presents a superb opportunity to show these influential travel agents what’s on offer here and will help increase the number of German holidaymakers to Ireland in 2021 and beyond.”

Ireland named a ‘top ten most promising overseas destination’ in China Ireland was recently named one of the top ten most promising overseas destinations at a travel and tourism summit in Panzhihua, in the Sichuan province of China. The event was organised by Weibo – the hugely popular microblogging site, often described as the Chinese version of Twitter. It was attended by social influencers, travel journalists and travel professionals from across China. At the ceremony, Ireland was named one of the ‘top ten most promising overseas destinations’ for Chinese travellers, along with countries like Germany, Greece, Portugal, Denmark and Indonesia.

The award was presented for Tourism Ireland’s activity on Weibo during 2019 to grow its followers, to continue to raise awareness of Ireland among Chinese travellers. Tourism Ireland now has 330,000 followers on Weibo – up +54% since the beginning of 2019; the organisation also has thousands of followers on other social platforms like WeChat and TikTok. Most Chinese travellers seek opinions online before selecting a holiday destination and half of all destination planning is done on mobile devices – so, a key objective for Tourism Ireland is to raise awareness of Ireland through digital and social media. Pictured is Elfie Yang, Tourism Ireland, accepting the award.

Celebrity chef Kevin Dundon puts Ireland on the menu in Canada Celebrity chef and TV personality Kevin Dundon has been showcasing our superb food and drink in Canada. Tourism Ireland invited Kevin to take part in a number of culinary and media events in Toronto. His busy programme included appearances on Canadian television shows – including The Morning Show, a breakfast TV show which airs on the Global television network to around 240,000 viewers and the popular Your Morning breakfast show on CTV, which has over 379,000 viewers.

He also did interviews with influential food and travel journalists who write for the Toronto Sun and Toronto Star newspapers. Kevin Dundon is pictured with Jennifer Valentyne, host of The Morning Show (centre); and Dana Welch, Tourism Ireland.

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The Year in Review

2019 A Good Year

but not a Great Year

The consensus is clear: 2019 was a good year but it wasn’t a great year. It wasn’t like the record-breaking 2018 and nor did we experience the kind of growth we’ve become used to over the last five or six years. It was, however, a good year and for that we should be thankful at least.

The underlying problems with our tourism industry haven’t been tackled so we’re lucky to being doing well at all. That’s another way of looking at it but it’s not, one would imagine, the thinking in the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. That the largest indigenous industry in the country doesn’t have its own dedicated government department and ministry tells you all you need to know: It’s effectively not even recognised as the largest indigenous industry. We continue to defend our policies of giving cowboy American giant firms billions in tax cuts to persuade them to set up shop in our trading post on the high seas of the Atlantic Ocean while we continue to treat our true gold with disdain.

Thus, the measly financial support the industry gets coupled with the quasi-bizarre hammering of its produce through a 50% VAT increase has produced what should have been a predictable result: a challenging year this year with a decrease in all the main markets except for the North American sector.

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Fáilte Ireland CEO Paul Kelly, meanwhile, says that the work of increasing business goes on. Overall, he acknowledges that 2019 has been a “mixed year”, with business sentiment down, citing the elements of rising costs, weaker than anticipated demand and uncertainty around Brexit, but doesn’t mention the VAT issue. Actions for the New Year include the €6 million domestic and NI marketing campaign and capital investment that will see 25 new and enhanced visitor attractions open.

There are a number of initiatives that will come into play over the coming months to bring improvements to the industry, both in the tourism offer and in encouraging more people from the labour force to work in the tourism sector. This is an important element of the work of the Tourism and Hospitality Careers Oversight Group, founded in 2018: “This month, we’re launching a new tourism careers website and a major promotional campaign to raise awareness of tourism as an attractive career opportunity. As part of this work, we are also working with stakeholders in both the tourism and education sectors on a range of initiatives to drive long-term employment in the tourism industry. This includes the National Chef Apprenticeship programme, which will produce the next generation of great chefs.”

The Year in Review Over at Tourism Ireland offices, meanwhile, they’re also acknowledging what a year of mixed fortunes it was, that ended up on the right side of growth in the end, as well as focusing firmly on the job ahead: “It is not enough to simply target growth at all costs,” says Niall Gibbons in the End of Year Review for 2019, “therefore our new, three-year strategy is built on a set of sustainable destination marketing principles. These principles will underpin all of Tourism Ireland’s activities and are reflected in our renewed emphasis on driving business to the regions and ensuring the benefits of tourism growth are distributed right around the island of Ireland, on a year-round basis.”

The all-Ireland tourism marketing body is in the most unique position with regard to slowly-unravelling Brexit phenomenon, straddling both sides of the Irish border as is its brief. They’ve had a very busy 2019 doing a huge amount of promotional work overseas, including the “Fill your Heart with Ireland” global advertising campaign that reached 78 million people, continuing to punch well above their weight in online platforms (over 23 million visitors on its website in 2019 and the fourth most popular national tourism website in the world on Facebook),executing a number of trade missions including Canada, USA and India and having a record presence at the world’s largest travel fair (WTM) in London in November.

As Tourism Ireland looks forward to continuing to implement its three-year plan that aims to see 13% growth in tourism revenue by 2022, the CEO acknowledged the difficulties of the past year: “In 2019 we’ve seen a continuing weak trend in Irish tourism – which has been reflected in the feedback from our industry partners, who’ve been experiencing weaker demand.”

In its latest industry barometer, the Irish Hotels Federation has issued a statement with the headline “Challenging Outlook for Hotels for 2020”. They talk about business sentiment continuing to fall, with only a third of hotel and guesthouse owners in the country predicting growth next year.

“It has been a tough enough year, tourism-wise,” says Michael Lennon, President of the IHF. “We’ve had seven or eight good years of growth since 2012. We’ve had high single-digit and even double-digit growth in the hospitality industry – particularly from the European and North American markets and that definitely didn’t perform as well as last year. The North American market was the only one that grew and even that was only by 2% or 3%.

And we were lucky that it grew, considering the flight services that were cancelled by Norwegian Air. “All that is reflected in the results that are due to come from hotels for this year. There’s only about 48% reporting growth this year (44% reporting a fall in revenue).”

Michael outlines two reasons for the largely negative outlook for hotels at a time when things could be better: “Top line might grow but bottom line won’t because we’re paying extra in VAT… we’d be sore enough about that and disappointed with Government, particularly in the year when the Brexit saga dragged on.

“The second thing is the effect of the Brexit indecision on the UK market. The border hotels in particular have been hit by the double whammy of decreased spending power and Brexit uncertainty.”

The Dalata Group has had a stellar year in 2019 with the expansion of its collection of hotels in Ireland and Britain. It began with the opening of the 212-room Clayton City of London Hotel and ended with the announcement of a 155-room hotel in Cambridge. Along the way, the company collected an impressive series of accolades; most notably with Maldron Hotels being named ‘Ireland’s Hotel Group of the Year’ at the Hotel & Catering Gold Medal Awards. More significantly still, Dalata was awarded ‘Company of the Year’ by both the Irish Times and Business & Finance Magazine.

“It’s good that people are noticing tourism,” says Deputy Chief Executive Stephen McNally, “for a company like ours who are

“

Challenging Outlook for Hotels for 2020

"

heavily involved in tourism, it’s nice to see the importance of tourism being recognised by industry at large.”

Such recognition from the private sector was at odds with Government action, however. Although Dalata have had a good year and are looking forward to further growth in 2020, Stephen also describes 2019 as one not without its difficulties: “As the year went on, it got more challenging… The impact of the VAT became much more clear and it did make things more difficult… it affected the regions much more than Dublin.

“Instead of refurbishing rooms, they were giving VAT back to the Government. I think that’s where properties might suffer a little this year – there hasn’t been as much refurbishment going on as there should have been.”

The insurance issue continued to be an issue, he also noted, in spite of calls to Government for years to come to grips with its increasingly crippling effects. Interestingly, Dalata is large enough to be in a position to be able to self-insure. Its spread of hotels across Ireland and the UK also give it the clear perspective of comparing both jurisdictions; noting, in particular, the fact that average personal injury settlement amounts are six times higher than those in Ireland.

“It’s getting a lot more news in the media but in terms of doing anything about it, it’s been very disappointing… no new efforts have been made to alleviate that heavy insurance bill.”

Seán O’Driscoll, Chief Operating Officer of hotel group iNua also notes the damaging effect of the punishing VAT increase on business in the hotel sector. This, it must be noted, was one of a series of increases in running costs that the hotel and catering suffered in recent years, with particular emphasis on insurance costs: “You’d have to say that 2019 was a strong year for tourism… It’s been a bit more challenging than 2018… the big challenge at the start of the year was the VAT increase.” He also talks of the uncertainty over Brexit being a destabilising factor in the first quarter of the year, until such time as the daily pantomime from the House of Commons faded into the background to a certain extent.

“The summer months performed well,” says Seán, “and we were very happy with the last quarter of the year as well.

“Hearing from our competitors across the board, everyone seemed to feel a slight downturn in international numbers but the domestic market performed well. So, although the CSO figures show a slight increase in international visitors, there are question marks around those figures because it’s not what we’ve felt on the ground.” The difference in the CSO figures and what hotels have experienced, he says, might be explained by

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The Year in Review factors such as people transiting through Dublin Airport being counted as visitors and those who arrive and disappear from the statistical trail by booking online B&B accommodation.

“Accommodation numbers have grown slightly for us. Spa and leisure revenue has grown substantially as people are becoming more health-conscious and food-and-beverage revenue has been affected, which is entirely due to the VAT increase. Food-and-beverage revenue would have continued to grow if the VAT increase hadn’t happened.”

He is quite positive about the future and of Ireland meeting its tourism target figures going forward: “We’re pretty happy with business on the books for 2020. The corporate sector looks good, the wedding market looks good and the vibes from the international market looks good.”

On the positive side of the scale, there was a warm welcome from the hotel sector for the Government managing to rummage around in its pockets and pony up an additional €7 million for the tourism industry right at the end of the year.

That warm fuzzy feeling is somewhat offset, they say, by the icy news that the other €40 million set aside for use only in the case of a ‘hard Brexit’ is not going to be released even though the entire sector is unanimously telling the Government that, aside from the fact that such an approach creates even more uncertainty when they ought to be planning in clearly defined moves, for the hotel sector, the Hard Brexit has effectively already happened.

The other news that was arguably even more welcome for the sector was the announcement that work permits would be given to qualified chefs and kitchen staff from third countries.

The work-permit initiative has been greeted with almost rapturous and relieved applause in the hotel and catering sector. On the ground, there is the question of determining the qualifications of new chefs. Some organisations go through London-based agencies who have already upskilled the candidates to levels similar to FETAC. The Government, meanwhile, has set up a process of determining qualifications: “To be fair to the Department, they go through the applicants and there’s a detailed application form that has to go in… there is a process to manage that,” says Michael Lennon, President of the IHF. When asked, Paul Kelly of Fáilte Ireland confirmed this: “With regards to the qualifications of those coming to Ireland on employment permits, the Department of Business, Enterprise, and Innovation ensures that they meet the necessary criteria.”

Eoghan O’Mara Walsh, CEO of the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation (ITIC) also echoes the sentiment of 2019 having been a year of mixed fortunes. Taking the positives with the negatives, he is mindful of the oft-repeated fact that tourism remains under-funded and that the Government are continuing this trend for 2020.

“2019 has been a soft enough year. Volume has been flat but revenue has certainly been in decline and that’s for three main reasons: One is the Brexit uncertainty. It has damaged the tourism economy; Second is the VAT hike which came into effect at the start of the year; Thirdly, there’s the loss of competitiveness – the increase in the cost of insurance and the like, which has squeezed margins and made trading that bit more difficult. The CSO figures bear it out, showing all markets in decline with the exception of the North American market.

“We are coming off 2018, which was a record high… but 2020 will be another challenging year because Brexit is going to keep rumbling on and there are various other challenges out there. The key is that we try to stay competitive and stimulate demand wherever we can so that we can continue on the growth trajectory.”

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As he sees it, however, there is still a stubbornly unhelpful attitude from central government towards Ireland’s largest indigenous industry. As he points out, “2019 saw the VAT increase, which was a blow to the sector, and 2020 will see an investment decrease by the Government. So in the space of a couple of years, you’ve had a couple of enabling factors withdrawn from the industry.”

In line with everyone else in the industry, he also calls for the Government to release their €40 million ‘no-deal-Brexit-emergency-tourism-fund’ now rather than keeping it under a glass case.

“Brexit is already having a real and material impact and in order to steady the ship and ensure that demand – particularly in overseas markets – stays strong, we need to increase investment in tourism.”

Capital investment in the tourism industry has been increased slightly but the current spending budget has been decreased, Eoghan points out, citing as “very disappointing” the fact that Tourism Ireland will have less money to spend on marketing Ireland overseas in 2020 than it did in 2019.

Róisín Wallace – Director of Operations & Marketing at the upmarket Original Irish Hotels group – echoes similar sentiments with regard to the year: “It’s been a good year. It hasn’t been as good 2018 but it has been a good year if you compare the years prior to 2018… We’ve seen growth from a number of markets. The USA has been particularly strong. There has been decline from some of the Continental markets but that’s in line with overall trends. Regarding 2020, we’re optimistic and we’re targeting growth.”

The Select Hotels marketing group of independently-owned hotels has another perspective as a marketing entity that’s part of a larger international group with important inbound coaching companies. General Manager Una Young says that a lot of word-of-mouth feedback through tour and coach operators on the Continent confirms the negative and ‘fear’ effect that the Brexit fiasco has had on customer sentiment on the ground: “The German market would be down significantly for us – by about 15%... in many ways it was more affected by Brexit in 2019 than the UK market had been for the previous two years. From talking to tour operators in Germany, there was such an amount on the news (about Brexit and the Irish border) in January and February during the booking period that it created an awful lot of uncertainty.

“Overall, we’re up on last year, but it has been very mixed. The American market for us has increased on 2018. It has been the best-performing market for us over the last few years but it has dropped off a lot in the last four months, which is a bit worrying for us going into 2020. The UK markets is slightly down and the German market would be significantly down… we increased by about 8% in 2019 and 24% the previous year.

Ruth Andrews – Chief Executive of the Incoming Tour Operators Association (ITOA) – has an even more focused view of the working conditions of the incoming tour operators in Ireland. She paints a picture of an industry that looked like heading for a defeat but scored a late equaliser: “The year ended up relatively well… no significant growth, really, on 2018 but members were please enough with the year; during the first half of the year, it wasn’t looking as if it was going to be a good year at all but things rallied in the latter half of the year so most people are glad that they won’t be down on last year.”

2018, she says, is best viewed as a ‘Reset Year’; a year where progressive growth peaked and which is worth taking as a watershed marking a new era of the industry, rather than constant comparison to it. It’s a time to reassess in terms of focus and strategy.

There was a feeling of cautious optimism from their last council meeting looking into 2020. Again, the issue of having to fight against the homemade obstacle of the VAT increase was an unwelcome one: “The VAT increase contributed to our eroding competitiveness from an international tourism perspective… it was the major concern and, unfortunately that concern came to fruition because it increased what appeared to be revenue, but ultimately it was a cost because it slowed down the growth of visitor numbers.

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Fáilte Ireland Industry News

Towns across the country allocated funding through €15.5m Fáilte Ireland Destination Towns Scheme Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, Brendan Griffin TD, recently announced funding under Fáilte Ireland’s Destination Towns initiative, which will be used to boost the attractiveness and tourism appeal of towns across Ireland.

Through the €15.5m Fáilte Ireland Destination Towns scheme which was launched earlier this year, every Local Authority in the country had the opportunity to bid for funding of up to €500,000 to develop a town in the county to enable it to improve its tourism offering.

The full list of ‘Destination Towns’ that will receive funding between the first and second round allocations are: • Carlow County Council – Carlow Town • Kerry County Council - Tralee • Offaly County Council - Birr • Cavan County Council – Cavan • Kildare County Council - KildareTown • Roscommon County Council – Boyle • Kilkenny County Council – Kilkenny • South Dublin County Council - Lucan • Clare County Council - Ennistymon • Cork City Council – Cork City • Laois County Council - Portlaoise • Sligo County Council - Enniscrone • Cork County Council - Bantry • Leitrim County Council - Carrick-on-Shannon • Tipperary County Council - Cashel • Donegal County Council – Bundoran • Limerick City & County Council - LimerickCity • Waterford City & County Council - WaterfordCity • Dublin City Council - Dublin Docklands • Longford County Council - LongfordTown • Westmeath County Council - Athlone • Wexford County Council - New Ross • Dun Laoghaire - Rathdown - Dun Laoghaire • Louth County Council - Drogheda • Fingal County Council - Skerries • Mayo County Council - Belmullet • Wicklow County Council – Wicklow Town • Galway City Council - Galway City • Meath County Council - Trim • Galway County Council - Clifden • Monaghan County Council - MonaghanTown The Fáilte Ireland scheme is part of the National Tourism Development Authority’s work to drive a better regional spread of overseas and domestic visitors and spend.

With Fáilte Ireland research consistently showing that attractive towns and cities are key motivators for overseas holidaymakers coming to Ireland, the new scheme will provide funding to Councils to enhance public spaces such as squares, streetscapes and markets in a way that will engage tourists and enhance their experience in key towns.

The process of identifying the towns that receive funding commenced in mid-2019 and was led by the Local Authorities in consultation with Fáilte Ireland. The Local Authorities will also provide funding for their projects.

Fáilte Ireland’s Destination Towns scheme is funded under the Government’s Project Ireland 2040 strategy with the aim of driving sustainable growth in the Irish tourism sector and higher revenue and job creation around Ireland.

Minister Brendan Griffin TD, Josephine O’Driscoll, Wild Atlantic Way Manager, Fáilte Ireland and Paul Kelly, CEO, Fáilte Ireland, pictured in Tralee’s Town Park as funding allocated as part of the €15.5million ‘Destination Towns

APPLY NOW

New Classification System for Fáilte Ireland’s Welcome Standard Fáilte Ireland’s new Welcome Standard classification system is now live, giving accommodation providers the option to achieve a 3, 4 or 5 shamrock classification alongside their existing Welcome Standard approval.

Fáilte Ireland’s Welcome Standard recognises alternative accommodation providers, for example glamping, pods, shepherd huts, yurts and lighthouses and much more.

The new classification system focuses on the quality of service and hospitality offered and has been developed in line with contemporary guest expectations and international best practice, giving businesses the chance to stand out from the crowd.

For more information and to complete the Welcome Standard Assessment to achieve classification, please visit www.failteireland.ie/welcomestandard

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Fáilte Ireland Industry News

Support for regional St. Patrick's Day Celebrations Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, Brendan Griffin TD, recently announced funding of up to €65,000 through Fáilte Ireland that will help support and develop St. Patrick’s Day events in Killarney, Cork and Limerick respectively over the next three years.

As the National Tourism Development Authority, Fáilte Ireland has identified festivals as a key component for tourism growth. The tourism development body is aiming to grow overseas visitors coming to Ireland to attend a festival to 300,000 by 2022. This growth is expected to generate €150million in revenue. Taking place outside the traditional peak tourism season combined with the geographical spread of celebrations across Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day provides a significant opportunity to grow tourism and extend the season.

Josephine O’Driscoll, Wild Atlantic Way Manager, Fáilte Ireland with Minister Brendan Griffin T.D. and Ciara Sugrue, Head of Festivals, Fáilte Ireland making the regional St. Patrick’s Day announcement

In making the announcement, Minister of State Griffin said: “Festivals and events play an important role in delivering brilliant visitor experiences and help to spread the benefits of tourism to communities throughout Ireland. The commitment of Fáilte Ireland funding and development support for regional St Patrick’s Day celebrations is a welcome boost and a significant opportunity to attract overseas visitors outside the traditional peak tourism season.”

Fáilte Ireland prepares Mayo businesses to surpass visitor expectations Fáilte Ireland recently awarded six visitor attractions located on the Route Millenia Mayo, with a Service Excellence Programme Business Award.

This award means that these businesses have all put the visitor experience at the heart of what they do; the National Museum of Ireland - Country Life at Turlough Park, Castlebar, Céide Fields, Ballycastle, the Michael Davitt Museum, Straide, Foxford Woollen Mills, the Belleek Visitor Centre at Belleek Castle and the Jackie Clarke Collection, Ballina.

A spectacular driving and touring route, Route Millenia Mayo links these six unique visitor experiences.

Fáilte Ireland’s Service Excellence Programme prepares tourism businesses to reach and maintain the highest standards in customer service excellence, encourage positive recommendations, gain additional repeat business and ultimately drive greater visitor numbers to their area and increase visitor spend.

Businesses from Route Millenia Mayo receiving their Service Excellence Programme Business Awards from Fionnán Nestor and Kevin Quinn, Failte Ireland

Further detailed information on the articles above is available at : www.failteireland.ie H&RT DECEMBER/JANUARY 2020

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IHI Awards

IHI Banquet Hospitality Management Awards

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Irish Hospitality Institute honoured excellence at last night's Annual IHI Founder's Banquet and Hospitality Management awards

Alan Buckley from Jurys Inn Parnell Street WINS Hotel General Manager of the Year Over 500 industry professionals gathered at the recent IHI Founder’s Banquet and Hospitality Management Awards to celebrate exceptional winners across 13 categories. The annual IHI Hospitality Management Awards are a recognition of the nominated person in their role, their capability, technical skills and their ability to demonstrate continuous professional development coupled with the energy and innovation they bring to their role.

Oonagh Cremins, President of the IHI, talks about the prestigiousness of the awards and recognising the personal contribution of individual hospitality professionals: ‘A huge congratulations to all of our 2019 winners. This year we attracted the highest number of applicants to-date across 18 counties, and the awards were attended by 500+ industry

professionals, reconfirming the prestigiousness of the awards and is a true reflection of the work we are undertaking to grow our membership awareness nationwide. As an industry we focus on delivering a better guest satisfaction and we position our people at the centre of this, hence these employee centric awards propels a higher calibre of winner, someone who was nominated by a peer or an employer as being exceptional at their role, celebrating them as an individual, their ability, dedication and professionalism. We would like to say a big thank you to our judges, category sponsors and partners who play their part in making the event the success it is.’

Through a new online entry mechanism for 2019, applications for this year’s awards were completed by both the nominator and the nominee. The judging process allows IHI members to submit their chosen nominee, a panel of IHI judges made up of senior industry figures across many industries from hoteliers to Fáilte Ireland to industry consultants and mainstream banking executives, shortlist the nominations.

Nominees then proceed to an interview stage where the judging panel base their final decision before the overall winners were announced at last night’s event where over 500 industry leaders gathered to recognise the personal contribution of individual hospitality professionals.

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IHI Awards

The 2019 Winners are...

Clockwise from top left: HR Manager of the Year – Kathleen Linehan, Trigon Hotels Revenue Manager of the Year – Declan McKenna, The Guinness Storehouse Food & Beverage Manager of the Year – Alex Staskunas, Compass Group at Aviva Stadium Employee of the Year – Denise Meenaghan, The Radisson Blu Hotel & Spa Sligo Young Manager of the Year – Keith O’Sullivan, Masterchefs Hospitality

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IHI Awards

Clockwise from top left: Graduate of the Year – Emer Priestley, Shannon College of Hotel Management Catering Manager of the Year – Sigitas Zubrickas, Sodexo Ireland Deputy General Manager of the Year – Diana Pyzio Sales & Marketing Manager of the Year – Eveanna Ryan, Connacht Hospitality Environmental & Facilities Manager of the Year – Aine Martin, Hotel Doolin Not pictured Finance Manager of the Year – Brian Farrell, Clayton Hotel Burlington Road

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Sustainability

launches carbon offsetting solution for business customers Amidst increased pressure on the commercial sector to take more responsibility for their carbon footprint by driving down carbon emissions, Flogas has launched a carbon offsetting solution for its commercial customers.

It will allow them to offset 100% of their own carbon emissions by providing critical support for projects directly benefiting the environment.

To launch the initiative, Flogas has offset its own carbon emissions and that of Flogas brand ambassador Neven Maguire’s restaurant and home. Collectively, they have now compensated for over 3,500 tonnes of carbon emissions in 2019, achieved by investing in climate protection projects via South Pole, a gold standard provider of carbon offsetting projects all over the world.

John Rooney, managing director, Flogas Ireland said, “ We’re urging our business customers to take a proactive approach towards tackling climate change and differentiate themselves from the competition. Participating customers will be able to display marketing materials and certificates demonstrating their carbon offsets and it’s an excellent opportunity for savvy business owners keen to get ahead of the curve.”

At MacNean House and Restaurant in Blacklion, Cavan, Neven Maguire uses Flogas LPG for cooking, heating and hot water and Flogas electricity for its power needs. Neven said, “I am delighted to be a part of this wonderful initiative from Flogas. By investing in gold standard carbon offsetting projects, we can all help bring positive change around the globe with sustainable, economic, social and health benefits to different communities. “ Carbon offsetting is recognised worldwide as a way of managing carbon emissions. For a minimal fee, Flogas will purchase carbon credits on behalf of participating commercial customers, investing in sustainable global projects that either reduce or capture an equivalent amount of carbon emissions.

Examples of such projects include forest protection, providing access to clean and efficient LPG cookstoves, supporting renewable energy projects and wastewater treatment and biogas utilisation projects. Carbon emission reductions are certified through globally recognised standards and audited by independent third parties.

For more info, see l/r John Rooney, managing director, Flogas Ireland with brand ambassador Neven Maguire at the launch of the company’s carbon offsetting solution for its business customers.

www.flogas.ie/carbon www.flogasni.com/carbon

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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 meet some 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 Grainne O'Keefe, head chef at Clanbrassil House in Dublin

Why did you become a Chef?

I think I’ve always been really interested in food, although I didn’t come from having an amazing background in it. I actually hadn’t been to a restaurant up until I went to college. When I was young, I used to constantly watch cooking shows. I would always get cookbooks from the mobile library in school. Watching these chefs on TV made me realise that this was all I wanted to do.

What was your path to where you are today?

I finished school when I was 17 and went straight into DIT Cathal Brugha St. I stayed there for 2 years while completing the Fáilte Ireland Course. By the end of my first year, I was working full time in a local restaurant, Il Segreto.

Then I moved to the Merrion Hotel for the next two years. Following that I moved on to Pichet for another 4 years. I ended up working in Bastible for a year and I finally ended up here in Clanbrassil house and have been here now since we opened.

What’s the most important ingredient in your success to date?

Working hard and not leaving long gaps or breaks between jobs.

Moving from one job to another, constantly trying to learn as I go.

Having a strong work ethic is also something I think is incredibly important to have - it’s the main key to making it.

Tell us about the team you work with I work with quite a small team at the minute. We have our front of house manager, Micheál Murray who’s been with us since the start.

He’s got more experience than all the rest of us put together. There’s Michelle Powell, she does the wine here and is so knowledgeable, even with cheese. We have a couple of part-timers on the floor as well.

Then in the Kitchen, there’s myself and my sous chef Harry Quinn.

He worked in Chapter One, in Galvin at windows and in Luna before coming to work with us. He’s been with us now for about 2 or 3 months.

There’s Pearse who does all the baking and pastry. Pearse worked in the Greenhouse and the Forest & Marcy and Bastible and has been

with us for a year. He’s brilliant, his pastry knowledge is unbelievable.

You can even see it in the café, all the pastries are made by him from scratch every morning. He’s great.

We have a great team altogether, back and front. I’m really happy to work with them every day.

How do you build a positive environment for your team and keep them motivated?

To keep them interested we do a lot of specials in the restaurant. I always try to encourage the team to come up with new dishes and try them out with our customers. I wouldn’t consider myself to be one of those chefs who must have total control of the menu. I want them to be interested in what we’re doing. It’s also nice for them to put their own dishes on the menu.

As it’s such a small team we try to sit down and have family meals together often. We go out for meals together on our days off and things like that. We’re friends. I think it’s a positive environment to work in. People generally stay a long time when they work here.

Have you seen a negative side of the industry in your experience?

Yes definitely, but there’s negatives in every industry. You’d be lying if you said there weren’t.

I guess one negative might be that you tend to miss out on a lot of family things. You’re off different days. You lose a lot of friends that you would’ve been friends with before you started in the industry. But then there’s a lot of positives, like you make lots of new friends.

The Chef Network Kitchen Charter aims to create a positive and nurturing work environment in kitchens, which point(s) on the charter do you feel are most important and how do you implement these in your own kitchen/business?

Work-life balance is so important here.

We only open for dinner during the week, except for Saturdays where we open for lunch and dinner. We’re open 5 days and then closed for two. Everyone gets Sunday and Monday off.

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Chef Network The hours aren’t as heavy as a lot of other restaurants would be either, so we try to give some balance to the chefs and the front of house in the morning times before they come in. The 2 days off together, it’s nice for everyone, especially after Saturdays because it’s a longer day. Everyone is happy leaving, and everyone is fresher coming in to work in the morning.

BEING A CHEF….

What I love most is…. I think it’s just that I get to do something I love all the time, instead of doing a job I’m not passionate about that doesn’t appeal to me. I’ve never wanted that. I know chefs work longer hours than a lot of other jobs, but personally what I prefer is to work more hours doing something I love rather than to work less hours but have to do something that I don’t enjoy.

The biggest challenge is…Deciding what your career path is going to be.

I’m only 28 and people are always asking ‘are you going to open your own restaurant?’, ‘are you going to have a family?’, ‘do you have a plan?’ ‘where will you be in 5 years’ time?’. The truth is I don’t have a plan. I stopped making plans, because I feel if you have a plan in your head, you can’t get side-tracked. You miss out on opportunities that come up because you’re so focussed on what you want to happen. And a lot of the time it doesn’t, so I made a conscious decision to just see what happens.

What makes me most proud is…Probably that we got a Michelin Bib Gourmand a few months after we opened. Being in the Michelin guide is something that is a nice award to get for the whole team. It was a nod to all the hard work that everyone has put in and the hard work that I had put in prior to this in my career. To get an accolade like that so early on was probably the proudest moment I’ve had in my career to date.

My advice to chefs starting out is…Go and work in a kitchen that you would inevitably like to own. Go into that restaurant and see if you like it.

There’s a chance that you won’t, there’s a chance that you will. I think a lot of people don’t realise what it’s like to work in a kitchen. Even studying in college can’t be compared to working in a kitchen. I think what happens to a lot of young people is they go into college and they’re taught a lot of things that aren’t relevant to them, then they go into kitchens and realise it’s not what they want. It’s not the atmosphere they want, it’s not the same as college and then they kind of feel like they’ve wasted their time.

Do you think doing a stage is beneficial?

Yeah, doing stages is very beneficial. Especially as it’s really good to gain experience in places that you would never have dreamed of working in. I did very brief stages in Le Bernardin and Atelier Crenn. Both have 3 Michelin stars. I’ve never wanted to work in a 3-star permanently, as it’s not the type of cuisine that I would want to cook for the rest of my life. However, experiencing that and seeing how those kitchens are run and the difference between those kitchens and the ones I’ve worked in has been eye-opening.

That 3-star experience, did you take much from it? Small elements that you could take and implement in your own kitchen?

100%! The funny thing about working in a restaurant like that is that you think it’s going to be them using ingredients you’ve never seen or using methods you’ve never seen. But they’re using tomatoes, they’re using artichokes, they’re making stocks. A lot of it’s the same but things are done in different ways and they have a lot more staff. I’d encourage anyone to go and do some stages.

My greatest mentor has been…I’d say Barry Fitzgerald. Barry owns Clanbrassil House & Bastible. He was the Head Chef in Bastible when I started there, and his style of cooking was different to any other style of cooking I’d seen before. Really simple, clean flavours.

He also ran his kitchen in a way that was a nice environment to work in. He was all about showing people how to do things. Barry and Claire Marie gave me a chance, they gave me the opportunity to be head chef here. They could have gotten someone with more experience, but they gave me the chance and have helped me all the way along.

My biggest inspiration is…I really like Tom Kerridge. I think Tom Kerridge’s food is the best example of really simple, good cooking, just elevated to the best level. For example, he has The Hand & Flowers which is a 2-star but it’s a pub. I just think what he has done with food is just amazing and he’s be one of my biggest inspirations.

My favourite job ever …Clanbrassil House, for sure.

My favourite place to eat…Smoking Goat in London, it’s amazing, casual but amazing flavours. I like Sabor in London, the food there is stunning, and they got a Michelin star last year. In Dublin, The Greenhouse, Mickael’s cooking is quite sharp but also incredibly tasty. And M&L, up O’Connell street for Szechuan, it’s so tasty!

My favourite thing to eat…I love toasted sandwiches. Toasted cheese sandwiches.

My favourite dish on our menu…We have a Sausage on the menu that we make here, boudin style with buttery potato puree and a chimichurri. Charred greens dressed in lemon juice and a jus gras. It’s really simple but so tasty. It’s one of those death row meals.

What’s something you’d still like to learn?

I have so much left to learn, I don’t think any chef should say they’re done, that they’ve learned everything. You never have. you could walk into any kitchen or any restaurant and learn 10 new things, within an hour of being there.

The Chef Network Stage Listing

We recently launched our latest initiative, the Chef Network Stage Listing, supported by Nespresso Professional.

This is the next step in our work towards creating a more positive ‘Kitchen Culture’, with an emphasis on promoting learning and development in kitchens and collaboration and openness across the profession.

The project aims to establish contact between kitchens and chefs eager to learn. The listing, hosted on the Chef Network website offers stages in a variety of kitchens of different sizes and sectors, and is now open for industry kitchens to sign up as stage hosts. It allows chefs currently working in the industry, as well as student chefs, the opportunity to easily see which kitchens across Ireland are to accepting stages, while providing Workplace a platform to connect with them and begin training.

Chefs and Employers,openhave you seen ouralso Kitchen Charter?

Go to www.chefnetwork.ie to register to be a stage host kitchen or to arrange a stage in one of the almost 30 kitchens across Ireland already listed.

Join CHEF NETWORK free today at www.chefnetwork.ie to connect, communicate and collaborate with your chef community Supported by Ready Chef H&RT DECEMBER/JANUARY 2020

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IFSA news

CFSP Ireland Programme Certified Foodservice Professional Programme

The IFSA’s - a NEW Industry Awards Programme A first of its kind in Ireland, The IFSA’S are aimed at showcasing the wealth of innovation and technology which our members continually bring to market each year. Categories have been chosen to take into account innovation across all product sectors from catering equipment, disposables, tableware, services, and of course actual food and beverage products. For 2020 the theme of the inaugural IFSA’s will be – “Innovation for a sustainable future”- a timely focus highlighting the Industry’s response to the very real environmental crisis which we are all facing as suppliers. An independent judging panel with a wealth of knowledge specific to our Industry with review all entries: • • •

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MAURICE BERGIN (CHAIR) - Managing Director Green Hospitality BRIAN WALSH - Packaging Technologist, Repak KEITH WARREN - Director CESA Catering Equipment Suppliers Association UK TONY McGUIGAN - Head of Procurement and F&B Projects, Dalata Hotel Group PLC GUILLAUME OATES - GFD Associates Independent Foodservice Design Consultants

Winners will be announced at Food and Bev live 2020 in City West on February 4th 2020.

See full criteria at www.ifsa.eu.com

Closing Date for Entries – 8th January 2020

THE PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATION THAT IS SPECIFIC TO THE FOOD SERVICE INDUSTRY

​ CFSP is the industry specific professional qualification for the foodservice industry. This is a CPD certified training programme, delivered in partnership with CESA, the UK Catering Equipment Suppliers Association, relevant to all personnel within your foodservice business.

- Dates: 26th March (full day) and 27th March (1/2 day) - Venue: Clayton Hotel, Dublin Airport - Costs: IFSA members €625 / non IFSA members €905

The programme content and benefits are relevant to manufacturers, consultants, distributors and operators. CFSP is an internationally recognised and promoted course that is delivered locally with content relevant to the national market. To successfully achieve the CFSP designation and the benefits that accrue, candidates must also complete an evaluation of experience which covers industry experience and activity within the market. This accrues points to become silver gold or platinum status and accreditees can develop their profile with CFSP throughout their career.

KEY PURPOSE: » Help train and develop staff » Raise industry recognition and respect » Help you to carry out your job more effectively » Increase confidence with customers » Provide personal satisfaction and achievement

To Book: Download Booking Form from www.ifsa.eu.com or contact louise.mcloughlin@ifsa.eu.com

FOOD & BEV LIVE 2020 - ORGANISED

BY THE INDUSTRY FOR THE INDUSTRY

Food & Bev Live will be kick-starting the 2020 foodservice season next February 4th & 5th in Citywest, Dublin. The 2 Day event attracts thousands of visitors and brings together National skills finals incorporating the Irish Cocktail Championships, National Coffee Championships and the Chef Ireland Culinary Competitions along with live demonstrations, new product launches and unique networking opportunities.

This year will also see the introduction of 3 new Industry features: • The inaugural Irish National Pizza Championships in association with the Associazione Pizzerie Italiane (API) will see chefs from across Ireland battle it out to be crowned National Pizza Champion • The IFSA’s – a brand new foodservice awards scheme with the theme “ Innovation for a Sustainable Future” • The first ever Irish Tea Master’s Cup, organised by the European Tea Society and hosted at Food & Bev Live. The competition will be part of the European Tea Pavilion which will be promoting speciality teas The scope of the event is much more than just the event itself, with media coverage from October to March the opportunities for businesses to get involved are extensive. From sponsorship to exhibiting, competing to award entries, the very best of Ireland's foodservice industry will be well represented.

For information on exhibiting contact margaret@eventhaus.ie or stuart.caffrey@eventhaus.ie or call +353 (0)1 8460021.

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Murco Catering Equipment The Oncology Haematology department at University Hospital Waterford moved into the 4th floor in new Dunmore Wing on Monday 9th December. Murco Catering Equipment specialise in the fabrication of high end units for kitchens, pantries, sluice rooms that can be utilised in healthcare and in commercial kitchen settings. All units are built completely with seamless stainless steel tops with no weld joints so are perfect for hygiene in facilities such as hospitals and nursing homes where cleanliness is paramount.

IFSA news

Sustainability Spotlight

In 1988 Frylite was established to provide the best quality cooking oil product and match this with an exceptional service. It's an approach that has worked and one that is key to driving Frylites incredible success today. Back then, the food service sector was only supplied with a poor quality cooking oil product. The service to customers was also very unreliable.

Today Frylite has transformed the market and is now the market leader in the supply of the freshest cooking oil which is sourced from all over the world. Frylite also collect the largest amount of waste cooking oil in the island of Ireland market. The key to their success is giving their customers what they need, when they need it. As a company Frylite is always evolving, adapting its products and services to ensure it can deliver. It always puts its customers at the heart of its business.

Frylite ensures its customers operate their businesses to the highest standard. By doing this it contributes to the green economy. You see Frylite converts all its waste oil doing into bio diesel and renewable energy. It also has developed its new food waste service. This helps its customers lower their costs and reduce the amount of waste going to landfill. Its aim is to continue to grow and become a leading Food Service provider in the island of Ireland market who promotes a green economy and helps all its customers reduce their carbon footprint.

Noel Group

We are absolutely thrilled to announce that we won the Best in Practice Hospitality & Events Award at the National Recruitment Federation Awards 2019 Gala! We are delighted that our track record in recruitment excellence has been recognised by industry peers. While our focus is on meeting clients’ recruitment needs and ensuring the individuals we place are wellrepresented, it is nonetheless satisfying that our team is acknowledged like this for excellence in how we go about our business. We are the provider of choice to many of Ireland’s largest venues including five-star hotels, awardwinning restaurants and in many retail businesses where contract catering, food and food preparation is increasingly significant. We always go the extra mile to deliver the best service possible.

Congratulating Noel Group, Donal O Donohue, President of the National Recruitment Federation, said that recruiters know the value of reward and recognition probably more than most.

“As an industry, our mission is to promote ever increasing standards and professionalism. So, within our own sector, it is important to acknowledge the top operators who consistently deliver for their clients and firms”, the National Recruitment Federation President said.

The 13th annual National Recruitment Federation Awards were presented at a gala ceremony in The Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin, hosted by Dragons' Den investor Gavin Duffy and attended by 350 industry personnel.

“People are critical to success and have much more to give a business than they will normally receive. So, the people who help find the right people for your business provide an invaluable service that cannot be underestimated”, Duffy said of the recruitment profession.

BWG Foodservice announce exclusive partnership with Bewley’s BWG Foodservice, part of leading Irish wholesale and retail group BWG Foods, has announced an exclusive partnership with premium coffee provider Bewley’s.

The partnership, announced at the BWG Foodservice Christmas Showcase offers all customers of BWG Foodservice a quality coffee offering bespoke to their particular business type.

The Bewley’s team will work with the BWG Foodservice team to deliver the right solution for specific businesses, irrespective of size and customer base.

Following a site survey from the Bewley’s team they will present back a range of options that meet the specific requirements and will work with the customer to finalise the best solution for that site, whether that be bean-tocup or a more elaborate barista solution.

Commenting on the partnership, Ricky O’Brien, Head of BWG Foodservice said: “We’re thrilled with this partnership, which will bring added value to all our customers. Our exclusive partnership will ensure our customers, are afforded the best and most innovative hot beverage solutions to grow their business. BWG Foodservice is proud to have teamed up with Bewley’s, Ireland’s largest coffee roasters and a market-leading supplier of hot beverage solutions to the foodservice sector.”

Sheila Dowling, Bewley’s Sales Director, said, “At Bewley’s, we are delighted to be partnering with BWG Foodservice as their official coffee and tea partner. This new partnership brings together Bewley’s rich heritage as coffee & tea experts and the BWG Foodservice expertise in the Irish market.”

Established in 2001, BWG Foodservice supplies everything needed to run a food service business, from gourmet food, chilled food, frozen food and ambient to alcohol and non-food products like catering supplies and catering disposables. All are delivered via multi-temperature storage and transportation facilities, ensuring food arrives in premium condition.

Caption: Pictured at the announcement of BWG Foodservice’s partnership with Bewley’s were Sheila Dowling, Bewley’s Sales Director and Ricky O’Brien, Head of BWG Foodservice

Order Online now at www.galgormgroup.com for all your catering supplies & equipment needs. We stock over 10,000 lines of products from blue roll to chefs’ knives, from kitchen utensils to washing up liquid, along with furniture and commercial equipment. Our online experience allows you to track your orders, download invoices and proof of delivery, see your favourite products and much more. Placing your confidence with Galgorm Group has the added advantage of linking you with our contracts, furniture, laundry, floor care, kitchen hygiene and tableware divisions literally a one stop purchasing experience. We understand the importance of prompt delivery and after sales care, operating our own delivery fleet and in-house qualified service team to give you the best possible experience. Galgorm Group was established in 1968 and since then we have been supplying catering equipment and supplies throughout the UK and Ireland. We are proud to have established an excellent reputation amongst restaurants, bars, hotels, cafes from providing consumables, to servicing equipment, to full commercial kitchen installations. Our headquarters are based on a 5-acre site near Ballymena, Northern Ireland just 30 minutes from Belfast.

Any questions? Email sales@galgormgroup.com or call 028 2564 3211.

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Training

Tourism Training - Why should Government be responsible?

The recent launch by Fáilte Ireland of a new tourism careers website, supporting the National Chef Apprenticeship Programme is very positive for the tourism industry. Alongside the recent Government initiative of issuing new chef work permits for catering staff from third countries, it constitutes very good news. These are just the kind of initiatives that the sector has been crying out for a long time.

But it also begs the question: Why should the Government bear responsibility for this situation? If you take it as read that our government rarely takes the tourism industry seriously anyway, you would therefore have to stand back and wonder why it is that so many actors in the industry expect the Government to sort out their problems?

Other sectors don’t seem to have this attitude. For example, the retail sector is full of companies that have their own selection and training programmes. Aldi and Lidl have comprehensive training that begins with an online aptitude test for each applicant. Imagine if the banking sector began to demand that the Government churn out more qualified bankers? The financial services industry has long embraced the idea that if they want staff that will carry out their functions efficiently within their business, they will have to devise their own training programmes internally and the notion of relying on Government to do so is as alien to them as expecting the Government to pay their wage bills.

On the back of this latest Government assistance, is it not time, therefore, for the sector to finally change its attitude and take on the responsibility of training staff for themselves?

“Well if you were to go down that route, then straight away you’d be talking about closing down every apprenticeship programme in the country,” says Adrian Cummins, head of the RAI (Restaurant Association of Ireland), pointing out that

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What if the Training Fund Levy was done away with and the responsibility put directly into the hands of the industry players themselves?

Training

the system in Ireland has long involved a contribution from all employers in the country (including hotels and restaurants) known as a ‘training fund levy’.

In principle, this tax goes towards training initiatives and programmes that benefit the industry, although it’s not altogether clear precisely which route that money takes.

In any case, Cummins says, the problem is that nowadays the focus is scattered amongst a variety of institutions producing different levels of qualifications, many of which don’t correspond to what the sector needs.

“We used to have one national training organisation that was focused on the industry – CERT. Why that was disbanded, we’ll never know and nothing has replaced it since then.”

He also accuses Fáilte Ireland of reneging on their responsibility to ensure training for the tourism industry.

While they are now heavily involved in the National Chef Apprenticeship Programme, they don’t follow their own constitution, he says, in providing training for the hotel and catering sector.

What if the Training Fund Levy was done away with and the responsibility put directly into the hands of the industry players themselves?

“Yes,” he says. “If we ran it, we’d do it far more efficiently than it is currently being done.”

Does the Irish Hotels Federation believe that it’s time for the tourism sector to get its act together and stop relying on Government for training?

“It’s a very good question and a very topical one at the moment,” says Michael Lennon, current President of the Irish Hotel Federation. “It’s fair to say that hotels do a lot of training themselves already. Even today, there are four or five of my managers on a course with a company called Leap in Galway that we often work with.”

With his own hotel in Westport, he often works in tandem with other hotels in the area, combining their resources through the LEO (Local Enterprise Office) programme to deliver leadership training to hotel staff; a good example of combining in-house industry initiative with local Government-sponsored bodies.

The problem for the hotel & restaurant sector, he says, is when it comes to the ‘craft’ end of training spectrum. It’s one thing to pool resources and organise quality on-thejob training for certain aspects of the sector, but unlike the situation with the retail sector or the financial services sector, there are certain key crafts in the tourism industry for which training must be provided on a national level: “I can’t go out in the morning and train four chefs as productively as I can do this once-off management training. That’s more retention training… From a craft point of view and from an executive management point of view, we do need schools and we do need colleges and they are very well supported by State.

“With all the comings and goings over the last 20 years, CERT was forgotten about (circa 2003)… when you look at the tech sector and all the State bodies that are there to help that sector of the economy, I think that there’s a lot more money going in to develop that than the tourism and hospitality sector.”

That said, he is appreciative of the efforts of Government and of the opportunities for training that it is trying to open for those in the industry: “There are a thousand and one of them out there if people would only go and look at them,” he says.

“We do need a strategy and we do need to co-ordinate it because there is a lot of good stuff out there and we need to be using it, whether it be health safety or leadership or management training or whatever… you will find that there is support there.”

Eoghan O’Mara Walsh, head of the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation, says he’s not the best-placed person in the industry to talk to about this issue, but he offers nonetheless a unique overview of the industry. As far as he is concerned, Government needs to weigh in on training more staff for the tourism industry if our growth targets are to be achieved: “From a general macro perspective, looking at the economy overall, it is a major handbrake on growth to have a lack of qualified skilled labour.

We at ITIC produced a strategy out to 2025 which predicted that growth would continue but we’d need 80,000 more employees in the tourism and hospitality sector.

“Obviously, that’s a major issue because the labour supply is so tight. So that means making the tourism industry more attractive to school leavers so that they enter our industry and make good strong careers in it.

“The industry has to play its part in training for sure but I’m very much aware that in the hotel and restaurant sector in particular (and also in the attractions sector), they all do an awful lot of in-house training and education but what they’re worried about is where the new staff is going to come from; the new staff that are required to help the sector prosper.”

Finally, O’Mara Walsh points out, there could yet be a benefit with regard to the trained-staff shortages in the tourism sector as a result of Brexit: while it represents a largely negative challenge for the tourism industry, the advent of Britain’s exit from the EU is likely to make Ireland a much more attractive option for EU workers in the tourism sector. So it’s an ill wind that doesn’t do somebody some good.

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Well-Being

'Are you turning a Blind Eye?" Mental Health & Well-being in the Workplace

By Conor Kenny One in four of us will suffer a mental health problem in our lives.

In Ireland, with a population of just under 5 million, that’s 1.2 million people.

At work, a quarter of your company.

Yet, even today, many companies turn a blind eye for several reasons; fear, their own view of this, personal experience, taboos, ignorance or simply the desire to deny its existence and impact. Worse still the “Get on with it” culture of a bygone generation.

When we don’t understand something, we face 2 choices – learn it, ignore it. With 25% of the workforce at risk, it’s easy to know what a company, a leader or a HR director should do, the problem is getting them to do it.

As the cartoon goes; Doctor: “He won’t admit he has a problem. In fact, he won’t even admit he’s here”

Denial

The term ‘mental health’ covers a vast ocean of challenges and what we think we know versus what we know are poles apart. When we talk mental health, we are often not aware of what this covers.

For example, we tend to separate terms like ‘addiction’ into different boxes. The same with substance abuse or gambling problems, neurosis, psychosis, fear, anxiety and on it goes. Quite often, it can be a chicken and egg question, which came first, the behaviour or the mental health issue? The reality is that anything that prevents good mental health has the ability to create poor mental health. Trauma, experience, upbringing, the list is endless, like you, I’m no expert in this field.

However, not being an expert is not a licence to abdicate. Many do, I have witnessed this first hand with leaders who simply sweep it under the carpet. It never fails to shock me, no matter how often I see it, hear it, or read a shallow note telling me why this isn’t important.

It is. We are talking people. That’s you, me and everyone who matters to you. Everyone.

What Cost? Which Cost?

It’s almost a curious question. Perhaps how we interpreted it at first glance, in itself, tells a story? Did we mean money? Did we mean people’s lives? You choose.

How quickly we can rush for our calculator. The cost to the business, the cost per employee. The cost of planning and policy. The cost in productivity. Have we a budget.

The cost can be a life of suffering or worse, a lost life. The consequences can wreak havoc for a wider circle of family, children, relatives, friends, colleagues and even strangers. Its reach has many ripples.

Whilst 25% of us may suffer in our lifetime, the Health at a Glance report found that: “Some 18.5 per cent of the Irish population was recorded as having a mental health disorder, such as anxiety, bipolar, schizophrenia, depression, or alcohol or drug use, in 2016” Put it another way, in 2016, 1 in 5 Irish people were actively suffering.

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Economic Cost

There is an economic reality as a consequence of people at work suffering from anything from fear to stress, from addiction to burnout and from anxiety to phobias.

According to Paul Cullen’s article in The Irish Times: “Mental health problems cost the Irish economy over € 8.2 billion annually, according to a new OECD report”

What is Mental Health & Well-Being?

The obvious first answer is that it is confused. Confused about what it is, what it covers and what its impact is.

A simple answer is anything that affects your mood and these fall into 2 categories: Psychosis & Neurosis: Psychosis includes delusions, hallucinations and thought disorders.

Neurosis includes symptoms of increased levels of emotions.

If you are in good mental health it means you can cope with the ups and downs of life. It means you are free to make the most of yourself, your goals, your ambition and your potential. It means you can enjoy and fully engage in life with family, friends, social and community circles and in your work.

Our ‘well-being’ or, our ‘emotional health’ is as important as our physical health, perhaps more important.

Good mental health is everyone’s business. Life constantly throws us into unexpected difficult situations that can leave us feeling down, stressed or scared. Most of the time those feelings pass.. But sometimes they develop into a more serious problem and that can happen to any one of us at any time. Everyone can react differently to the same event. You may bounce back from a setback while someone else may feel paralysed by it for a long time. And our mental health doesn’t always stay the same. It can change as circumstances change and as you move through different stages of your life.

When we use the term ‘mental health’ it’s easy to see where misconceptions arise and there’s nothing worse than the amateur enthusiast who has become a self-professed expert in these matters.

Well-Being

A very useful short guide and introduction to what we mean by ‘mental health’ can be found on the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services website. They say: “Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social wellbeing. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood.

Over the course of your life, if you experience mental health problems, your thinking, mood, and behaviour could be affected. Many factors contribute to mental health problems, including: • Biological factors, such as genes or brain chemistry • Life experiences, such as trauma or abuse • Family history of mental health problems Mental health problems are common but help is available. People with mental health problems can get better and many recover completely”

Be Aware - Early Warning Signs “Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worst kind of suffering” - Paulo Coelho If you are not sure if you, or someone you know, is living with mental health problems then a simple check is to see if they are experiencing one or more of the following early warning signs

• Eating or sleeping too much or too little

• Pulling away from people and usual activities

• Having low or no energy

• Feeling numb or like nothing matters

• Having unexplained aches and pains

• Feeling helpless or hopeless

• Smoking, drinking, or using drugs more than usual

• Feeling unusually confused, forgetful, on edge, angry, upset, worried, or scared

• Yelling or fighting with family and friends

• Experiencing severe mood swings that cause problems in relationships

• Having persistent thoughts and memories you can't get out of your head

• Hearing voices or believing things that are not true

• Thinking of harming yourself or others

• Inability to perform daily tasks like taking care of your kids or getting to work or school

Good Mental Health and Wellness

It’s very easy to focus on mental health challenges without thinking about the flip side or perhaps it should be the goal in the first place. Good or positive mental health has many benefits to the individual and to their circle. It allows people to:

• Realise their full potential

• Cope with the stresses of life

• Work productively

• Make meaningful contributions to their communities

• Be more resilient

• Keep perspective

How Do We Do That?

We do that in many ways. For example: • Getting professional help if you need it • Connecting with others • Staying positive • Getting physically active • Helping others • Getting enough sleep • Developing coping skills

Recovery

Recovery is absolutely possible and even probable. Here’s what a leading USA expert, Daniel Fisher, M.D., Ph.D. wrote; “Research carried out at the National Empowerment Centre has shown that people can fully recover from even the most severe forms of mental illness. In-depth interviews of people diagnosed with schizophrenia have shown that these people are capable of regaining significant roles in society and of running their own lives. Though they have recovered from their mental illness they, as everyone, continue to heal emotionally. In most cases they no longer need medication and use holistic health and peer support to continue their healing. Our findings are consistent with long term studies carried out in this country by Dr. Courtenay Harding and colleagues, and in Europe by Dr. Manfred Bleuler and Dr. Luc Ciompi. In addition, cross cultural and historical studies indicate that chronic mental illness is a recent phenomenon of Westernized countries. In spite of all this evidence, most people in this country still believe that when a person has been labelled with mental illness they can never fully recover” In fact, they can.

The Challenge

The challenge we all face is how to integrate after loss or conflict and return to a greater wholeness of self. Being trapped by our own inner conflicts and thoughts is silent torture. Unlike someone on crutches, it’s a violent pain that we often cannot see in others. But even the worst experience of any mental health episode has a long term upside; “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved” - Helen Keller

Your Choice

In your business, mental health and what you do about it is ultimately your choice. In fact, it comes down to 3 questions only:

- What value do I put on the welfare of my people?

- What is the right thing to do for my people?

- Will I turn a blind eye?

And maybe revisit the title of this article just one more time?

Feel Free and Finally

“You are free to make whatever choice you want, but you are not free from the consequences of the choice” – Anonymous

If you value your people, make sure your legacy supports the easy words.

We won’t remember what you said, we will remember how you made us feel.

Starting in January 2020, Conor Kenny & Associates will be delivering a Strictly Limited brand new short course programme ‘Understanding Mental Health and Well-being’ led by one of Ireland’s foremost experts in this field. It covers, mental health in all its forms, addiction and motivational interventions. For further information, please email info@conorkenny.com

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 developing your people, performance and business.

He is the author of 3 books

It’s Who I Am (2017) – Irish Times Best Business Books of the Year.

Dancing at the Fountain (2016) – Irish Examiner Best Business Books of the Year.

Sales Tales (2014)

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Pay Rates

Pay to Compete Frank Corr looks at how hospitality is losing in the rewards market.

As we begin a New Year and a New Decade, what messages are being received by the young people that the hospitality sorely needs to run its myriad operations ?

• The Irish Tourist Industry Confederation is seeking ‘proactive Government intervention’ saying that the 13.5% VAT rate and increased business costs are putting pressure on the industry.

• The Restaurants Association of Ireland is seeking a Government subsidy similar to the one being introduced for creches, saying that hundreds of small restaurants are facing an increase in insurance costs.

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These, and other recent statements from industry organisations suggest that the thriving tourism and hospitality sector cannot stand on its own two feet and will contract if it is not given further support and subsidy by the taxpayer. Hardly the spirit of confidence and optimism for the future that would attract young people seeking to build a career.

More significant however is research conducted by the CSO for Independent.ie, which reveals that the lowest paid fulltime workers in the Irish economy are to be found in the accommodation and food services industry. They earn an average of €26,683 a year and their wages grew by a mere 1.6pc in the 12 months to June 2019. The figures reveal that their earnings are now far behind the retail and wholesale trade.

• The Irish Hotels Federation says that the fallout from Brexit next year and the high cost of doing business remain key concerns for the sector with many hoteliers highlighting the significant negative impact that escalating insurance costs and local authority rates are having on their competitiveness.

Average earnings across all sectors are €48,204 a year. This is an increase of 2.5pc from €47,038 a year in the previous 12 months.

• Domini Kemp, co-owner of the Itsa food group warned of more closures in the restaurant sector. She said that ‘the imminent rise of the minimum wage in February will have a significant impact right across our sector as we are a low margin, high employer industry’.

These figures show that the hospitality sector is facing an uphill battle in attracting employees and expecting them to work for 55% of average national wages. It is now also endeavouring to hire and retain staff from a labour pool which is better educated, more ambitious and more mobile than it was even eight years ago when the economy all but imploded.

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By comparison, average pay for administrative, transport and storage staff advanced by 6.6pc while at the top of the scale workers in ICT enjoyed average annual pay of €65,815.

During the year to June 2019, their earnings rose by almost 5pc. Not far behind were staff in financial services, insurance and real estate with a yearly gross pay packet of €64,856.

And it has been well warned about the emerging scenario.

Last year a report from the Government’s Expert Group on Future Skills said:

Pay Rates 'Average hourly earnings rates in the Hospitality sector are ranked at the lower end of the range of sectoral categories monitored by the CSO. Average hourly earnings declined in both the accommodation and the food and beverage services sectors from 2008 to 2014'.

In other words, the industry pays its employees poorly and will struggle to compete with even other low-pay employers in attracting staff. The report does not reveal just how many hotel and restaurant workers are on the Minimum Wage, but judging from the reaction of the RAI and IHF to increases in this floor wage, it is likely that there are many. In competing for staff, the industry must also now benchmark against the growing number of employers, including supermarkets, paying the 'Living Wage' of around €11.50 per hour. If this becomes a new 'minimum', the gap between existing hospitality pay and the 'going rate' will widen with an inevitable further loss of competitiveness.

Hospitality employers might succeed in successfully maintaining a low pay environment if they could offer working conditions which are exceptionally attractive. If, for instance, low pay at entry level was likely to lead to a well-paid career, then young people might find that to be a worthwhile investment. The Expert Report finds however than the exit rate from the industry is high and that many employees see their catering jobs not as a career, but merely as a stop gap on the way to something more promising.

It is probably fair to say that the critical recruitment issues for the sector exist at operator level. Accommodation, bar, restaurant and security employees are more likely to be on the Minimum Wage and have less obvious career paths, while some chefs may also find themselves in this category. It is unlikely that chefs being hired under the new Work Permit arrangements will be particularly well paid as many will be coming from countries with poor or fragile economies.

Higher up the hospitality employee category, hotels, caterers and restaurants find themselves in a more competitive environment in which they must match the pay and conditions of other sectors if they are to successfully recruit and hire key team members.

Says Micheline Corr, director of hospitality industry recruiter The Firm: ‘Hospitality candidates never had it so good when it comes to career choice, with the economy approaching full employment competition for their talent and services grows ever more intense. In the job market we are seeing increases of around 3% to 5% on leadership positions.

In a survey conducted by The Firm in December 2019, 74% of employers said that a good working culture is a drive of business success and 83% think that Diversity and Inclusion is strong attraction and retention tool.

Some employers are also looking at innovative health care for stressed employees. Hotel group MHL offers “Employee Assistance” to their employees and their families. This is a 24hour access to mental health professionals while Hilton Hotels promotes well-being through their THRIVE initiative.

In approaching the recruitment, and more significantly, the staff retention issue, hospitality employers must become more innovative, creative- and even realistic in their approach. Many elements of the industry such as accommodation, food and beverage serving, are labour-intensive and at best semi-skilled.

Many of these employees do not provide significant added value, and therefore it is difficult to see how they can earn higher pay levels, unless their skillsets can be enhanced. Employers can however make the working life of these employee more lifeenhancing by improving working conditions, adding benefits like health insurance or a pension, introducing work-friendly rosters and, most important of all, by providing a means for some employees to break through the hierarchical ceiling towards supervisory or management roles. A McDonald’s starter can theoretically rise to ceo- so why cannot kitchen porters be offered at least an opportunity of climbing ladder to becoming a general manager. A small number of progressive Irish hoteliers have created such opportunities and are already reaping the rewards.

Industry organisations could also benefit by turning down the ‘moan volume’ every time the Minimum Wage is increased or other costs rise. Federation and Association ceos know only too well that megaphone moaning achieves nothing apart from giving members a good feeling about the organisation.

What they may not realise however is the cumulative negative effect such complaining and meaningless dire warnings of multiple closures can have on the image of the industry among prospective employees.

The tourism and hospitality industry is in rude good health with more than 9m visitors, 260,000 employees, billions in new investments and prospects of further growth.

So what are we moaning about?

It is a very competitive market and hospitality employers need to pay attention to look at the reward that goes beyond salary. Values rather than euros are the order of the day’.

She says that most hotel, restaurant and catering manager’s considering a change of job will have multiple choice, several interviews and possibly a few offers before making a decision.

‘Brand image, culture and benefits – well communicated can make a difference’, she adds.

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Greening

Sandymount Hotel Leading the Green Revolution

Sandymount Hotel in Dublin is leading the way for environmentallyfriendly hotels across the world. H&R Times has a chat with Ann McCabe, the property's environmental manager.

Who would have thought that a small, independent, family-run hotel in Sandymount, Dublin, could compete on an international stage alongside esteemed properties across the globe on environmental practices?

Well, that's exactly what the four star Sandymount, which is located beside the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, did. Furthermore, it trumped all the competition to become Europe’s Leading Green Hotel at the World Travel Awards not once, but three times.

Although Sandymount was voted above famous properties such as the ICE Hotel in Sweden, the Vila Vita Parc in Portugal, and the Hotel Metropole Monte-Carlo in Cannes, it's not easy being green. After all, this property was not purpose-built to tackle climate change.

The hotel has been run by the Loughran family since 1955. It has 187 bedrooms and is the largest, family-run hotel in Dublin. There is a 24-hour fitness room, that includes a treadmill, bike, kettlebells and weights. But the real heavy lifting is in the story of how hotel fought for its environmental credentials - and how it wears its awardwinning credentials with pride.

"A few high-profile chain hotels have asked us for advice," says Ann McCabe, Sandymount's green manager. "They're our competitors, but it's a race against time [to stop climate change] at this stage.

You're not going to sit here and keep all your secrets to yourself, and not help other hotels. We think it's a great thing. It's great for us."

Today, 95% of the hotel's waste is recycled and it uses 22% less electricity than it did in 2013. The property uses biodegradable compostable cups, lids and 100% eco-friendly straws. And that's just the tip of the eco-iceberg.

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Greening

McCabe credits Ruth Cooper, a former manager at the property, for kick-starting Sandymount's green revolution. They have come a long way to get here. Sandymount's first step in saving energy was to change all the hotel lights to LED bulbs. The team reduced the water consumption by 20%, following a survey of leaks and wasted water in drains and pipes.

McCabe continues: "We changed all the shower heads in the bedrooms. We put restrictor flows on the taps in the bedrooms.

Public area bathrooms have sensor or push down taps. The urinals in the men's toilets are now on sensors. They used to flush on timers, which wasted water. We also do rain foresting.

We collect water that is used in the garden."

The bedrooms are heated on thermostats, which she describes as efficient. Toiletries, toothbrushes and even razors in the rooms, are biodegradable. In a unique spin on encouraging guests to be environmentally aware, the hotel offers €5 in credit, at the Line Out Bar, if guests opt out of having their towels and linen changed, for every night they stay.

The hotel's printers, computers, even mattresses, are recyclable.

"We recycle soap and toiletries, discarded in the hotel every day, through the global Clean the World programme," says McCabe.

"They take away all the toiletries, recycle them, and the profits are used for Third World countries."

McCabe and the team have succeeded in ridding the hotel of most of its packaging. "In the bar, we've got rid of packets of peanuts," she continues. "We've got rid of the crisps and changed them for crisps in compostable bags. The straws are compostable. Coffee cups and lids are compostable. In the bedrooms, we changed plastic bottles to glass."

A baling machine shreds cardboard in preparation for recycling. In the kitchen, meanwhile, the chef reviews food waste to understand if it is increasing or decreasing. In Whitty’s Restaurant the only remaining packaged item is butter - and McCabe plans to address that soon.

Much of this work would not be possible without collaborative suppliers, although Sandymount Hotel often takes the lead.

Some suppliers, when asked for eco-solutions, were unaware where to start. "We were the ones who had to get them to go and look for solutions," notes McCabe. "You would think the market is available, but it's not. We had to drag it out of it. We ask all our suppliers to take back as much packaging as possible.

Boxes go into a pile, they get given to the delivery driver and then get reused."

The only exception is packaging that contained meat, which is disposed in the general waste bin due to contamination. The hotel intends to find compostable packaging for this as well.

Pioneering an eco-friendly operation has not been cheap. Yet Sandymount is not only playing a crucial role in tackling the threat of climate change, it is also appealing to guests. Online marketing, and information about the hotel's green credentials, have helped draw visitors from all over the world to Sandymount.

"A couple of years ago, the occasional person might come to the hotel and comment on our environmental changes. Now it's on everyone's mind. People choose to stay with us because we're more environmentally friendly. They can holiday here guilt-free."

The hotel's commendations are testament to the team's hard work.

As well as winning Europe’s Leading Green Hotel, Sandymount has been a runner up for Energia's Sustainable Family Business of the Year. McCabe was nominated and in the final of the IHI Awards, under the banner of Environmental and Facilities Manager of the Year.

Conducting the hotel's environmental changes has transformed her own life, as she has introduced these practices in her own home. As the hotel progresses into 2020, Ann McCabe plans to continue doing as much as possible to limit the building's impact on the environment.

"We don't have a huge turnover of staff here compared to other hotels," she says. "Because it's such a family-friendly hotel, people tend to stay, which makes keeping up with our environmental work a bit easier. All the background work has been done. Now it's just all about maintaining that standard."

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IHI Interview

Oonagh Cremins

talks supporting the 'People' as she takes the helm as the IHI's only second female President Oonagh Cremins is a marketing leader with decades of senior hospitality experience both operationally and at corporate management level. As she takes the helm as President of the IHI, here she chats about the challenges facing the hospitality industry, why the IHI Hospitality Management Awards are the most prestigious awards of the year and she sets out her strategy for the growth of the IHI before her tenure ends in June 2021.

1. As one of only two female Presidents of the IHI, how does that feel?

I am truly honoured and privileged to take on the role. Back in April 1995 when Paula Daly was voted as the first female president, there wouldn’t have been very many females holding senior level positions within the industry, therefore she became a wonderful advocate for the institution. A lot has changed in those years and now is a good time to return to a female president as it reflects our changing membership base and the growing presence of females within the industry.

2. What does the IHI represent?

We are about ‘people’! Our aspirations at the IHI is to improve the profile of the industry, support the industry as a solid career choice and grow the membership of the IHI – which in turn allows us to offer invaluable support to the industry.

Our main aim is to continue our growth as a professional body, bringing people within the industry together to establish and grow skillsets, enhance relationships and offer a community of like-minded individuals. We are a pro body for supporting, mentoring, networking and recognising the value employees (at all levels) bring to all aspects of the industry. We have a very strong active board who are happily committed and partake to spread the ambitions of the IHI in their own areas, all voluntary and time consuming. All members believe strongly in creating a community of peers that we can all learn and benefit from.

We attract huge attendance and support at our events, 500+ at our industry awards, 60 people at our targeted networking breakfasts and additional support from non-members who we also welcome – it is about spreading the learning, educating all and ensuring that our ‘people’ feel valued and supported by the industry.

3. What existing challenges does the hospitality industry face?

Hospitality is the country’s largest employer, employing over 330,000 people and because of this, attraction and retention of staff within the industry is a huge challenge. Sometimes other professions can be viewed as being more enticing, however, the hospitality industry offers wide and transferable skills and needs to be further recognised as a solid career choice with career growth and continued access to cross functional skillsets.

Honestly, one of the industry’s main pitfalls is that it hasn’t done a good job marketing itself to fully communicate the positives of such industry. As someone who was hands on in the industry for many years, I believe we need to look inward at programmes, chef initiatives, professional development curriculums and promote continuous learning, bringing greater professional status to the industry.

We are a people industry, other industries have automation swooping in, but whilst automation can improve efficiencies and how we run our hotels and businesses, people will always be the key component in service. Therefore, we need to think about the people and offer better opportunities, upskilling programmes, further education,

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networking opportunities and workshops etc. to ensure we are attracting and retaining the required staff.

4. The IHI Hospitality Management Awards are the most sought-after awards recognising excellence within the industry. What makes these awards so special?

It’s simple, it’s because the awards are about the ‘people’ and not the ‘property’ or their place of work. By raising our standards year on year, this has led to 2019 attracting the highest number of applicants to-date and reconfirms the prestigiousness of the awards.

Judged by a high calibre panel of well-informed industry judges, across many industries from hoteliers to Fáilte Ireland to industry consultants and mainstream banking executives, the strict criteria in place for the judging ensures that we offer fair and transparent adjudication. These 39 judges all work voluntary, giving up approx. 2 full days of their time, offering their unique skillset to better the future of our industry. As a very generous industry, we are all about ‘people’, staff and consumers, and this ethos is carried through the awards from start to finish.

Whilst as an industry we focus on delivering a better guest satisfaction, we need to put our people at the centre of this, hence these employee centric awards propels a higher calibre of winner, someone who was nominated by a peer or an employer as being exceptional at their role.

5. What are your goals, aspirations and future for the growth of the IHI?

Firstly, I want to ensure that we continue the exceptional work that the institute has generated within the industry over the past number of years.

In addition, we have devised a robust strategy to facilitate growth across our membership base, improved offerings for our industry ‘people’ and to continue to raise the standards of our industry awards year on year – we want to ensure that we remain professional, offer support and recognise excellence.

Our main aim as an institute is the grow our membership base across Ireland. In 2017, my predecessor Matt Muller was the driver behind setting up our Munster district, and in a bid to expand our remit, we have plans to further drive our academic partnerships which we will support with a number of regional centric events to fulfil momentum and introduce ourselves directly as a professional body to graduates.

As an industry that has gone through a huge recession, the subscription cost to such institutions as the IHI can sometimes fall short on budgetary lists or indeed to pay packets when employees are burdened with the cost themselves. As part of our communication around helping the industry to attract and retain staff we’d like to work more closely with hoteliers to develop packages whereby alongside health insurance and other benefits that they are offering employee IHI memberships, which will in turn assist the employee with their growth, professionalism and recognise them as a member of our industry with access to all the benefits driven through the institute.

We want to tap into the younger generation as they access the industry by providing access, advice and support at all levels. We are exploring the idea of a pro bono mentoring programme whereby young graduates and staff can access a panel of mentors who would take a phone call, give advice or meet for coffee to offer support etc, it’s all about attracting and retaining talent through networking and support.

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