Reports from Committees and other Bodies

Marketing Committee

Eric Rothschild

The key areas which the Marketing Committee worked over the year were;

1. The new design of the Be Our Guest Guide 1999

A number of changes were undertaken for the 1999 edition of the Be Our Guest Guide. A new cover was designed after two years with the same design and once again Guinness were the main sponsors of the guide. There was also the re-organisation of the regions to make them more user friendly, such as the formation of the East Coast as a new region representing Dublin, Wicklow, Louth and Meath. Other areas affected were the North West and the Midlands. Also for the first time this year the Quality Employer Programme logo was included in the entries of fully accredited properties. This year saw huge growth in the guide with over 1,014 premises. Already work has started on the year 2000 Be Our Guest Guide.

2. Increased attendance at consumer shows and trade fairs

This year the IHF represented members at three additional consumer shows, all of which were a great success and a number of new shows have been scheduled for 1999, such as the Consumer Show in Glasgow.

3. A Substantial increase in the print-run for the '99 Be Our Guest and increased distribution of the guide on the overseas market.

The print-run for the 1998 Be Our Guest guide was increased to 300,000 copies. The print-run for the 1999 guide has been substantially increased yet again to 400,000 copies of which 200,000 copies have already been distributed on both the domestic and overseas markets. The print-run has grown due to an ever-increasing demand for the guide and to ensure strong representation in the international market.

4. Re-design of the Be Our Guest web-site

The home page for the Be Our guest site was re-designed this year, also in order to make the site more accessible it has been registered with all major search engines and directories. Through the use of a virtual server both the web site address and the email address have been changed to www.beourguest.ie and info@ihf.ie, again making the site more accessible to users. Also a number of hyperlinks have been developed for this year's web site to provide increased information to the user, for example all members with their own web site now have a direct link to the IHF site. Other developments mean that information on the web site can be up-dated from head office making the site more dynamic.

5. During the year a number of meetings were held with a liaison committee from

The Regional Tourism Associations. These meetings were held in order to further improve working relations between the IHF and the RTA's. A regional Tourism Manager is featured each month in the Innsight publication, and it has been suggested that RTM's meet with their local IHF branches at least twice a year. Further meetings will be held to discuss a number of areas, such as marketing.

Finally I would like to thank the Marketing Committee for their hard work during the year.

Environmental Committee

Peter McDermott

In response to an adopted resolution at our 1998 AGM, an environmental sub-committee was formed to create a platform for an IHF policy document on the environment and sustainable tourism.

To this end with the assistance of DIT's Tourism Research Centre we applied for funding under the OPT Pilot Initiative on Tourism and the Environment. Even though we were unsuccessful in our application we have agreed to participate in a Tralee IT Impact Assessment Study on Tourism and the Environment, which will run for the duration of 1999.

Since the Earth Summit in 1992 and the adoption of Agenda 21, all countries are committed to a sustainable development. We, as a leading organisation in Irish Tourism must not only react to and support government initiatives on environmental protection and policy but must contribute to the debate and influence the direction and success of the policy.

• Sustainable tourism must satisfy three environmental and socio-economic criteria:
• It should enhance the standard of living for host population in the short and long term.
• It should meet the needs of the tourist and continue to attract them, in both the short and long term.
• The environment should be protected in order to achieve both preceding aims.
• For sustainable tourism to work, it must have the full commitment of all stakeholders within the industry to the above criteria at both national and local level.

It is clear that our work has only just begun.

CERT Council

Mary Fitzgerald

1998 was a significant year for CERT, where it marked 35 years of Tourism and Hospitality Training in Ireland. Under the Guidance of the new chairman, Eamonn McKeown strategic plans were put in place for the period of 1999 - 2005. A comprehensive internal renewal programme has taken place over the last 12 months, which plans basic strategies up until 2005, and beyond.

A special employment need's survey was carried out in 1998, which highlighted the extent of employment growth over the past 2 years. In 1998 tourism continued on the path to becoming Ireland's leading indigenous industry. 4000 new hotel bedrooms came on stream, and as a result making it the largest ever increase in person capacity in the history of Irish Tourism.

In most recent times industry employment needs rose by 12% in hotels and 16% in restaurants. This left an estimate 9000 unfilled vacancies at skilled operative level. Skill shortages for the expanding tourism industry are a challenge for CERT to recruit and train to meet the recquired and expected demands. The earlier part of 1998 saw a major and innovative recruitment campaign attaching over 10,000 people to tourism days nation-wide and the setting up of a special telemarketing careers hotline. This hotline promoted career opportunities for 3690 callers.

The IHF were very involved at career road shows at the RDS in Cork and throughout the country. The great effort by IHF and CERT heightened the awareness of career opportunities in tourism; the quality employer programme has worked very well to improve the image of hotel and guesthouse as employers. These campaigns targeted the school leavers who are already showing a reducing source of recruitment. The prospect of full employment will remove access to the traditional source of labour/the live register. CERT for planning a major drive to recruit married women and farmers' wives, a sector that do not appear on the live register. The IHF in conjunction with CERT will have to play a part in providing employment conditions such as flexible working time if the programme is to work.

The positioning of temporary training centres in areas traditionally not associated with tourism such as Carraroe and Kilkenny have worked well . CERT will be looking at settling up similar recruitment centres outside the traditional tourism areas.

A major change is taking place in association with IHF and CERT to highlight the career paths, career ladders and opportunities to the career guidance teachers. The parents as influences of students making career choices as per a CERT survey 1998, 80% are influenced in leavers' choice by parents, are being targeted in 1999 by the great give-away shows on Radio 2FM. Television campaigning is being planned at the moment. The hotels are providing the prizes for these shows. The co-operative of bodies, IHF and CERT is the only way forward.

Through industry training support scheme, 40 new personnel positions were created in 1998 and more coming on stream in 1999. 2000 personnel have already completed trainers of industry programme through in-house training.

We are now entering a new era in tourism under the operational programme 1999 - 2006. Under Chairman Mr Eamonn McKeown and the new Chief Executive, Shaun Quinn with his past experience of marketing and strategic planning in Bord Bia this will lead tourism training and developments into the new millennium.

Benevolent Fund Committee

Patsy Ryan

It is a sign of the growing maturity of our industry and of the Irish Hotels Federation that we are endeavouring to put in place a Benevolent Fund for the benefit of those from our industry who have suffered misfortune or fallen on hard times. I was delighted to be asked to take on the position of Chairman of the Benevolent Fund Committee at the beginning of this year and also with the response of those who agreed to come on the Committee, Dick Bourke, Paul Fitzpatrick, Philip McGlynn, Kathleen O'Regan-Sheppard, Mailo Power and John Ryan.

The fund-raising efforts since its inception have centred around the IHF Golf Classic, held annually at Mount Juliet, to whom we are extremely grateful for the continued use of this fantastic facility and of course which guarantees the success of the day. Draws held at our AGM Gala Dinner and at some branch functions have typically been the only other fund raising activities over the past three years.

Unfortunately, we are still a long way short of achieving our target of £100,000 which we believe is the figure at which the fund can become active and self sustaining.

We therefore decided on an all out effort of a Members Draw with an array of fantastic prizes to try to raise the balance of this fund. Tickets were priced at £200 with a ceiling of 1000 tickets and these were sent to every member of our Federation. The response to this initiative at time of writing has been disappointing but we are optimistic that the letter from our President and subsequent 'phone around' will boost the numbers of tickets sold in time for the first draw fort he BMW 3 Series at our AGM in Donegal. This draw, if successful has the potential to put an active Benevolent Fund in place in one fell swoop, so I would make a final and urgent appeal to all members to subscribe to this worthy and indeed, necessary cause.

May I thank the President and the Executive for their continuing support and in particular my Committee who put huge work into conceiving and executing this draw. I would also like to thank all those members who have bought tickets, and exhort the remaining members to come on board and be associated with our Benevolent Fund.

Remember, it could be you.

Employment Committee

Frankie Whelehan

As in 1997/98, the Employment Committee again made the Quality Employer Programme its number one priority, with a total of over 55% of the total membership committing to the programme.

New facilitators were appointed with significant gains recorded in the larger branches. Whilst the emphasis continues towards increasing first time applicants, a process of boosting accreditations is about to be put in place. Total applications to date 450, total accredited 161

The challenge for the incoming employment committee will be to maintain the momentum of applications, encourage members to go for accreditation and finally hold the credibility of the programme with accredited properties through consistent adherence to guidelines by QEP hotels.

Other projects undertaken by the employment committee were as follows:

• Work experience code of practice for IHF members
• CERT/IHF career guidance workshops nation-wide
• Set up of recruitment fairs in the UK and the Scandinavian countries
• Career talks in Cork, Dublin, Galway and the South East
• Career event in conjunction with 2FM on January 27th

The employment committee were very fortunate to have the services of Anne O'Carroll through whose effort a lot of our objectives for our year were achieved, and we would like to highlight our appreciation.

Unfair Competition

Kathleen O'Regan-Sheppard

"Levelling the Playing Pitch", equity in the levying of Local Authority Rates to all forms of commercial tourism accommodation and the application of hygiene, planning and fire safety regulations and having adequate insurance cover in place for all sectors providing accommodation to the public, continues to be the plank on which the Federation seeks to eliminate the unfair competitive position presently enjoyed by almost half of the proprietors of the national bank of commercial accommodation bedrooms. We reiterated at every possible opportunity, including a recent meeting with the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation that a licensing system should be in place. This licence system should be based on standards; the regulations relating to which should be mandatory. The absolute necessity to have these mandatory regulations is because:

• They would protect standards,
• They would protect the health and safety of customers and staff,
• They would protect the physical environment,
• They would protect the supply of sub-standard or low quality accommodation currently provided for in a temporary basis during the peak season which is damaging to the strategic development of the tourist industry and
• It is putting at risk the industry on which the future economic and social performance of Ireland so much depends.

In our meeting with the Minister, we stressed that the small family hotels and guesthouses and the approved B&B sector are the backbone of the Irish tourist industry. We stressed that the livelihood of the owners and their employees are in danger unless the unfair competitive position enjoyed by the unregistered sector, self-catering and the state aided university campus' is removed. The Town & Country Homes Association and the Irish Farm Holidays Association and Regional Tourism Managers and most people who take tourism development of Ireland seriously agree with our pursuit of putting in place a licensing system. We have reiterated to the Minister the need for courage in addressing this issue but we firmly believe that the leadership shown by any Minister in addressing and putting in place a proper licensing system will have strategic long-term benefits.

The Rateable Valuation Bill in respect of which we lobbied actively the Departments of the Environment and Finance to ensure that provision was included to apply local authority rates to all commercial providers of tourist accommodation is due for publication in the early part of 1999.

We are seriously concerned at recent utterances by the Minister for Tourism, Sport & Recreation, of his opposition regarding the inclusion of such a provision in this Bill. At our meeting with the Minister, we reiterated that this was not a correct view.

We lobbied the Minister for the Environment to revoke the regulation within the 1994 Planning Regulation which allows private residences to offer up to 4 bedrooms for sale on a B&B basis without obtaining planning permission. We hope that the new Planning Bill planned to be introduced in 1999 will take account of this issue.

We wrote to the Minister for Health drawing his attention to the fact that members of the public are open to the risks of being served food in establishments which are not subject to environmental health inspection or control.

We asked the new Chief Executive of Bord Failte to ensure that compliance with the fire regulations and hygiene regulations would be a pre-requisite to the approval of any premises offering bed and breakfast accommodation.

We still await the response to these approaches.

Consistent lobbying on these issues is vital and will continue. I wish to thank the Committee and Members, Mary Britton, Patsy Ryan, Gerard Hanratty,and Peter Prenderville for their continued support and advice and to the Executive in Northbrook Road for their assistance.

Bord Failte Liaison

William Power

Last year saw changes being made in Personnel within Bord Failte. The new Chief Executive, John Dully took up office at the beginning of September and the vacancy for over 15 months for the position of General Manager Marketing was only filled in January 1999.

Throughout the year many meetings took place with the Chairman, Chief Executives and key Executives within. Bord Failte. Most of these meetings focussed on ensuring that there will be a proper approach to the funding of overseas tourism promotion. We expressed particular concern at the need to ring-fence tourism marketing budgets to ensure that the resources allocated were directed to the market place.

Bord Failte continues to provide the major channel for the distribution of the Be Our Guest Guide. In 1998 distribution of this Guide through the Bord Failte offices in the U.S.,U.K, Germany and France amounted to almost 180,000 copies. Early indications are that this figure will be achieved in respect of the 1999 Guide. We welcome the proposal by Bord Failte to review the activities and structures of the Regional Tourism Authorities and we will be providing input to the Consultants retained for this project. We also welcomed the commissioning through 1998 of new photographic material supporting the Tourism Brand Ireland initiative.

In our discussions with Bord Failte, we reiterated our view that a strong Bord Failte is essential to the future of Irish tourism, but that its focus must always be as a marketing organisation.

Licensing Committee

Billy O'Carroll

The Licensing Committee had a very active year and addressed very serious issues on licensing, copyright and employment matters. Prior to the release of the Dail Select Committee on Legislation and Security Report, on the revision of licensing laws, we actively lobbied to ensure that the interests of our members who participate in the nightclub and disco business would be protected.We had meetings with the Minister for Justice and the Garda Commissioner, to discuss the proposed developments in licensing legislation. We continued to reiterate our major concern regarding the economic viability of many hotels which depend to a large extent on the proceeds of the Saturday night discos and night-clubs and the urgent need to address the present law in this regard. We consistently lobbied that there is only need for minor changes in the licensing laws:

• Closing time for pubs should be the same all-year-round i.e. 12 midnight; with a half-hour drinking-up time;
• Sunday should be treated in the same way as every other day in respect of permitted hours and special exemptions;
• Special exemptions should still be necessary for the sale of intoxicating liquor later than the regular licensing hours intoxicates;
• There should be a pre-requisite for obtaining special exemptions, that in addition to the special events and private functions already covered, entertainment and food should be provided at the premises obtaining these exemptions;
• Regulations should be introduced to regularise the operations for night-clubs and discos and that there should be proper control on the number and location of such late night establishments.

Following the report of the sub-committee on Legislation and Security of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Equality and Women's' Rights, reviewing the liquor licensing laws, we made a formal submission to the Minister. In that submission we expressed the strongly held view that the report was unbalanced, that it was strongly biased in favour of the interests of vintners and gave very little regard to the social responsibilities attached to the sale of drink, the obligations to residents in the neighbourhood of the licensed premises and the other important sectors within the industry such as hotels and night-club operators.We also called for the introduction of a system under which guesthouses could obtain a licence to sell alcoholic beverages to the residents.

When the Competition Authority issued its report recommending a de-regulation of the liquor licensing system, we made a further submission to the Minister in which we urged that any de-regulation of the licensing system should be done with extreme caution and that the uncontrolled proliferation of licensed premises would, in the long-term be anti-competitive and could herald the death-knell of the very successful and important "Irish Pub" identity, which is so valuable to the tourist industry.

We continued to have regular discussions with the relevant Civil Servants who were involved in the drafting of new licensing legislation. We are hopeful that many of the issues which we have sought in our submissions will be included when the new Licensing Bill is published in the early part of 1999.

On the issue of music copyright royalties and in particular the arbitration on equitable remuneration for the PPI, the Arbitrator has not yet heard submissions leading to the setting of the level of remuneration. The passing into law of the Intellectual Property (Miscellaneous Provision) Act 1998 is a cause for concern in that the person or licensing body claiming a copyright is assumed to have the copyright unless to the contrary it can be proved This provision removes the defence which we used in the past of insisting that the copyright collectors proved copyright of particular pieces of music.The same provision has been included in the draft new Copyright Bill and we will be making representations in due course to protect our members' interests.

Convention Bureau of Ireland

Peter McDermott

Preliminary figures for 1998 for the Overseas conference Market are roughly in line with 1997, i.e. 86,000 delegates with an estimated revenue of £90 million.

A breakdown of the 1997 figures for conference delegates from the main markets are as follows: -

• Britain 36%
• Mainland Europe 43%
• North America 15%
• Other Overseas 6%

While it is more difficult to obtain accurate information for the Incentive Travel market into Ireland, feedback from Industry Partners suggest that the revenue from this high-yield sector is around £40/45 million.

During 1998 the marketing of these important segments continued. The year long conference promotion in Britain "Ireland - A Different Place to Meet" culminated in an event in Dublin Castle hosted by the Minister for Tourism, Sport & Recreation, Dr. James McDaid, who welcomed 64 British Conference Agents who had just completed a familiarisation trip around Ireland visiting all the properties who had participated in the promotion.

In partnership with the Irish Trade, 55 US Buyers from the top Incentive Houses were brought on a familiarisation trip and visited many of the main properties involved in this market.

Many Irish Hotel Federation members, as well as Destination Management Companies, actively participated in the European Incentive Promotion last March, which resulted in 100 European Incentive Agents being invited to Ireland to experience a taste of what Ireland has to offer the incentive traveller and to see the excellent Incentive properties first hand. The organising committee for this promotion was chaired by Alan Glynn of the Incoming Tour Operators Association. Congratulations and thanks to all concerned for giving of their time so willingly.

Already the Conference Bureau of Ireland/Bord Failte have provided the New Conference Video, and the Conference Planner is to be revised/updated in 1999.

The European Union have yet to make a decision with regard to the National Convention Centre. Needless to say there are many interested parties who are hoping for a favourable outcome.

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