Presidents Overview

William Power,
IHF President

As I come to the end of my two-year term of office, as President, I would say that the greatest event during this period has to be the enormous achievements in the peace process in Northern Ireland. These developments based on the Good Friday agreement of April 1998 culminated with the historic meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council on the 13th December in Armagh.

I believe that this is the beginning of economic and social co-operation on an unprecedented level on both parts of the island involving Ministers from Dublin and Belfast. The benefits of this cross-border co-operation will accrue to all sectors of the economy but will be of particular value to tourism. The Federation is working very closely with the newly launched Northern Ireland Hotels Federation under the direction of its President, Howard Hastings, and Board of Directors, to ensure that, as an industry, hotels and guesthouses share the benefits of this peace dividend. Through this co-operation and the many joint activities in which we participate, we can replicate at industry level what the governments are doing politically.

I was particularly privileged in my two-year period to have had dialogue with both industry and political leaders, in the Republic of Ireland and in Northern Ireland. Hopefully, many of the issues raised during these meetings will be taken into account as all island structures and activities fall into place. I know that my successor as President of the Federation, with the support of Council, Membership and Executive, will ensure that our industry will give whatever help possible, to ensure the success of this enormous process.

Preliminary estimates are suggesting that overseas tourism earnings reached £2.5 billion in 1999. When you add the value of domestic tourism, estimated to be in excess of £800 million, tourism is a £3.3 billion industry which provides employment for 135,000 people, with the Irish Exchequer benefiting to almost £1.6 billion. The Irish hotel and guesthouse sector now having 850 hotels with 38,000 rooms and 490 guesthouses with 5,250 rooms is by far both the largest employer and investor in the Irish tourist industry. Employment in hotels and guesthouses now exceeds 57,000 people, more than three-quarters of whom are on a full-time basis.

The growth of tourism in 1999 at approximately 7% matched the growth rate in our gross national product. While 5.9 million overseas visitors came to Ireland in 1999 an increase of 7% on the previous year, it is sobering to note that virtually all of this increase came in the business and "visiting of friends and relatives" category. The results of 1999 in terms of promotable tourism to Ireland showed no increase on the previous year. While we are very fortunate in having a strong and fast growing business sector, many of our members and particularly the small family-owned units are in locations in which the corporate sector is not a large part of their business.

Some commentators might claim that we are losing our friendly spontaneous welcome to our visitors.I believe that this is an over re-action and while I have concerns that we must plan and train in the future to ensure that this asset is recognised and perpetuated. My experience has been that the friendliness and spontaneity is still present. The Federation fully supports the tourism awareness programme "People and Place" being promoted by the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation. Arrangements are being made that our branch network will ensure that this programme is communicated to all our members. This is a strategic move to ensure that the preservation of the unique qualities of friendliness and spontaneity continue in this people based industry of hospitality.

Throughout 1999 the Federation continued to promote and expand the Quality Employer Programme and 300 of our 900 members are now accredited covering over 55% of all persons employed in the hotel and guesthouse sector. It is my view that this energy and commitment must continue until all hotels and guesthouses are accredited under the IHF Quality Employer Programme. Ireland, with unemployment at 5% of labour force, is operating at virtually full employment. Almost anybody who now wants a job can obtain gainful employment. We are fortunate in this sector that CERT can provide the initial training for first-time entrants to our industry.

At the launch of The IHF Website: President, William Power and Secretary Treasurer, Donal O'Meara.

In an era of full employment and a still growing economy we have to look to new sources from which to recruit job entrants. The Executive of the Federation have now established contact with state agencies and hotel schools in Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic with the objective of arranging placements of suitable persons, seeking work and experience in the hospitality sector, in IHF Quality Employer Approved establishments.

We still of course, continue our focus on recruitment within Ireland and, for the second year, in conjunction with the Restaurant Association of Ireland and CERT, a nation-wide "national tourism career road show" attracted over 8,000 second level students to presentations on careers in hospitality. This initiative was carried out with the co-operation and support of our branches and members. It is through this commitment that the state and private industry can work together in such important areas as recruitment. These activities are so vital if we are to overcome the challenges, which lay ahead of us. I make this comment in the light of the findings of the CERT commissioned report "Hospitality 2005 - Human Resources Strategy" which stated that our industry is now entering a new and perhaps most difficult phase of its development. Much of its success, to date, is a tribute to the sound investment in new product development and international marketing. The nature of the challenge now facing the industry suggests a shift of emphasis towards investing in human capital and improving productivity. As in any service industry, competitive advantage is achieved through people - the knowledge and skills they invest in delivering the service to customers. A large portion of the activities of the Federation both at Council and Executive level throughout 1999 were focused on addressing these issues and seeking allocation of adequate resources to these tasks.

In our pre-budget submission, we highlighted that the level of female participation in the workforce in Ireland, between the ages of 25 and 54, at 58%, is well below the equivalent participation rate in other northern European countries, which range from 75% in the U.K. to 85% in Finland. We still believe that the facilitation of greater female participation in the workforce should be a priority in our taxation system. We called for the introduction of a homemaker's tax-free allowance of £2,000 per annum to incentify homemaker's return to the workforce and for the introduction of tax allowances for child-care costs. We also called for funds to be provided to CERT, specifically to carry out training in rural regions. I see the implementation of such measures as a means for supplementing income of families in rural areas and could be particularly attractive to those now involved in part-time farming. These initiatives must continue and be intensified to ensure that adequate staffing is available to service our customers.

Throughout the year I had a number of meetings with various Ministers and in particular the Minister for Tourism, Sport & Recreation. In the meetings with Dr. McDaid, I reiterated the necessity to have adequate funding available for destination marketing overseas of Ireland. We pushed for the creation of a designated tourism marketing fund of £20m. per annum. I welcomed the success, which the Minister achieved, in the allocation, to tourism, of approximately £400m. in the National Development Plan 2000 - 2006. The allocation within the plan of £150m. over the 7-year period, to a designated marketing fund is particularly welcome. The focus of our attention must now be to ensure that this marketing fund is administered by a structure similar to that as the Overseas Tourism Marketing Initiative (OTMI). By this method there is total transparency on the use of the funds and a decision-making process involving joint industry/state structure. The OTMI experience has proved that when the state and industry comes together with a clear focus on marketing, the funds available can be channelled, with the greatest effect to the desired consumer focused activities. The mechanism also allows decisions and key marketing issues to be made by people who have hands-on experience in the tourist industry, many of whom have invested heavily from their own funds in developing the tourist product. As the funding of the National Development Plan, as far as tourism is concerned, is coming from exchequer sources, we have now to be vigilant that Government policy and budgetary decisions do not divert the promised funding away from tourism. I believe a structure should be put in place, consisting of representatives of the tourist industry and the Departments of Tourism, Sport & Recreation and Finance, which would monitor the expenditure on tourism under the plan. In this way, we can be assured that the promised funding materialises.

Our lobbying also called that membership on the Board of the new All Ireland Tourism Marketing Body should be made up, on a fifty-fifty basis, from representatives of the industry and state nominees. As the largest investor and employer in the tourist industry in Ireland, I believe that the Irish Hotels Federation should be represented on the board of this body.

All through my period as President, I set the Quality Employer Programme as my number one priority and Council allocated increased funding to ensure its growth among the membership of the Federation. I am pleased to state that, as I go out of office, two-thirds of all our members have applied for accreditation and over one-third have been accredited.

As mentioned earlier, over 55% of all employees, in hotels and guesthouses, now work in IHF Quality Employer accredited businesses. This is the foundation of which my successor will continue to build. As we explore new methods of attracting recruits, the most valuable reassurance given to those is that the properties to which they will be recruited are Quality Employer accredited employers. With preference in allocating work experience and placements now being given by CERT and hotel schools to QEP accredited employers and in the recruitment initiative being carried out by the Federation in Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic, in which placements will only be made with accredited properties, I believe that the importance of seeking this accreditation is now being realised by most of our members. The accreditation is becoming essential to attract employees in an economy, in which there is almost full employment.

In the next few weeks legislation will be introduced to put in place a statutory minimum wage. While the Federation welcomes such an introduction it drew attention to the need to ensure that cognisance was taken, in this legislation, on the cost associated with training new entrants until such time as they reach the appropriate level of productivity. We are pleased that our representations, in this area, have been recognised in the published bill, as also is the recognition of the costs of providing tangible fringe benefits.

Provisions of the Copyright and Related Rights Bill 1999, which is presently going through the Dail, have major implications for our members. Together with the Vintners Federation of Ireland, and the Irish Nightclub Industry Association, the Federation is involved in a strong lobbying campaign. Our aim is to ensure that collecting agencies, acting principally on behalf of major multinational record companies, cannot operate in a completely unfair and high-handed manner and be in a position to intimidate our members, many of whom are small family owned rural businesses. Our members do not wish to avoid the payment of equitable remuneration to the owners of copyright in recorded music but they do object to collecting agencies being put in a stronger position than, even, the Revenue Commissioners.

At the launch of Be Our Guest 2000: President, William Power and Peter Philpott, On Trade Director, Guinness Ireland Group with some of the CERT trainees outside CERT House.

The Bill was drafted in such a ludicrous manner that collecting agencies are assumed to own the copyright unless it can be proved to the contrary. This, we believe, is a clear imbalance of justice and should be redressed. The legislation allows collecting bodies to set up, without control, and without having to prove ownership of copyright, to seek the collection of levies. We believe that these provisions could be a "Charter for Rogues" and legislating in such a manner is the failure of Government to protect our society from such rogues. We are continuing to make our arguments to Government to highlight the inequities and dangers of such legislation.

Another ridiculous aspect of this Bill, as introduced, was to classify the use of televisions or radios in a hotel bedroom as being public performance and thereby subject to royalty payments. While I accept a need to update copyright legislation to take into account major developments in technology and the Internet, I believe that basic justice has got to be incorporated in all good legislation irrespective of how complicated and intricate the subject covered is. It is for this reason that the Federation allocated substantial funds to preparing our submission to Government and in funding ongoing lobbying.

In our lobbying throughout the year we continued to refer to the need to address the question of unapproved tourist accommodation. In an era of concern for the protection of our environment, it is incredulous that our legislators allow almost 20,000 businesses to operate, within this state, without having to comply with local authority planning requirements irrespective of the damage which this oversight can do to sustaining our environment. The littering of our country by the uncontrolled signage of such premises calls into question the seriousness of the Government's commitment to good planning and control of the environment, which is so important to our tourist product. I also expressed a concern that the unapproved accommodation sector is allowed to operate without any statutory inspections to ensure compliance with safety, hygiene and fire regulations. Ministers may continuously state that these properties are subject to such inspections but I have yet to see or get a direct answer from any Minister as to how many such inspections were carried out.

The quality and competitiveness of the access to an island such as Ireland is fundamental to its tourism success. It is for this reason that we called on the Government to have independently evaluated all proposals, which would incentify, increased access at competitive fares to all airports in the country. I also believe that there is a need to address the sea access cost. The onus is on the state to ensure that we have the most efficient and low cost airports and seaports. Airports and seaports are part of our national infrastructure. Their level of profitability should be sufficient to maintain the service to customers and to facilitate the procuring of funds for future investment. For this reason, I believe, that the Government should not allow Aer Rianta, our national airport authority, to use an E.U directive on the elimination of discounts in landing charges to boost its overall revenue. The additional revenue from these charges should be used to reduce landing charges on other routes.

The priority of the continuity of such vital access points as airports and seaports must always be on the welfare of the national economy and as vital parts of our infrastructure must be operated at the highest possible level of efficiency and at the lowest possible cost to users.

On marketing issues, the Be Our Guest Guide continues to be our main artery. The print run is now 400,000 copies and it is circulated throughout the world mainly through the offices of Bord Failte and the Northern Ireland Tourist Board. The Be Our Guest website continues to be developed and its accessibility through the use of Internet search-engines has been improved. In 1999 there was almost 300,000 visits to the Be Our Guest website. We are now examining methods of using technology to further improve the marketing activities of the Federation. Through Gulliver Infores there is now a dedicated Be Our Guest free-phone booking service.

I wish to thank the commitment of our executive, and members who actively participated in the work of the Overseas Tourism Marketing Initiative (OTMI). I particularly acknowledge the commitment given by Dublin hoteliers who provided hotel accommodation, as prizes, to incentify responses in Germany to a joint Kerrygold/OTMI promotion. This promotion resulted in over 120,000 people seeking information on holidays in Ireland.

At meetings with the Minister for Tourism Sport & Recreation, we obtained a commitment that the Regional Tourism Marketing Initiative will be continued for the year 2000 and a fund of £500,000 allocated to it.

Pictured at the launch of the 1999 IHF Consultancy and Services Directory are L-R: Richard Bradbury, National Key Accounts Manager of Murphy Brewery Ireland Ltd; William Power, President, IHF; Patrick Conway, Commercial Director, Murphy's Brewery Ireland Ltd; and John Power, Chief Executive IHF

At European level we continued our active involvement with HOTREC which during the year held General Assemblies in Helsinki and Quinta do Lago. The lobbying activities of HOTREC continue on such issues as the retention, within the proposed EU common system of VAT, of the reduced rate of VAT, on hotel and restaurant services, restrictions on the rights of copyright collecting agencies, proper balance being attained in the proposed E.U. regulations on food safety, and on efforts to introduce standardisation in all aspects of European business. This concentrated effort, at European level, on communicating a business view on evolving social legislation and consumer protection initiatives is so important to ensure that we operate in a reasonable trading environment. In addition to the attendance at General Assemblies our Executive actively participates in the many working groups of HOTREC on these and other individual issues.

The Benevolent Fund now stands at close to £85,000 and hopefully in the year 2000 will attain a target of £100,000 and thereafter be augmented by activities to ensure that this base fund level remains in place having been of assistance to any of our less fortunate colleagues.

I had the privilege of being President of the Irish Hotels Federation as it entered the third millennium. I am pleased to note that most of our computer systems and equipment with embedded chips seem to have survived the much-hyped Y2K millennium bug. As I come to the end of my two years as President, I wish to thank you for having elected me to such a prestigious position which I believe is the greatest honour that any Irish hotelier can ever achieve. I would like to pay tribute to my Vice-Presidents, Management Committee and members of the Council and members of the Federation generally who helped me throughout this two-year period. These are the people who are the foundation of the Federation and play such a vital role in its success.

I wish to thank the Chief Executive and staff at Northbrook Road for their ongoing support and guidance and achievements throughout my two years in office.

Finally I wish every success to my successor as your President, whom I know, with your support will continue the successful leadership of this industry.