Members of Kinsale Chamber of Tourism recently launched ‘Kinsale 2006’ at La Stampa Hotel in Dublin. The 80 page colour brochure aims to maintain Kinsale’s strong position as one of Ireland leading tourism destinations for 2006.

TV personality Derek Davis introduced proceedings sharing his affection for the town of Kinsale and for all the wonderful attractions it has to offer. Mr Davis commented on the extensive investment made in the town over recent years and highlighted the contribution of local hotels including Actons, The Trident and Blue Haven.

Notable events in 2006 include the 30th Anniversary of the Kinsale Gourmet Festival, the Kinsale Fringe Jazz Festival, the Kinsale Point to Point, the Kinsale Regatta, Heineken 7’s, Kinsale Arts Week in July and national and international sailing events from Kinsale Yacht Club.

Pictured at the launch of ‘Kinsale 2006’ were Caroline Crowley, Derek Davis and Glenda Gilson

Lufthansa is planning to expand its Irish service significantly in 2006. The airline, which carried 178,000 passengers on its Dublin–Frankfurt route in 2005 expects to add a new service to Munich as early as this Summer and is considering establishing a new route to Hamburg by the end of 2006.

The company’s decision to expand its Dublin services follows annual double digit growth in passenger numbers out of Dublin since 2003. According to Dr Karsten Benz, Vice-President for Sales and Services in Europe, 80 percent of passengers on Lufthansa’s Irish routes are connecting on to other destinations. With visitors numbers to Ireland from continental Europe experiencing strong growth, the additional routes mark a welcome development for Irish tourism.

Knock Airport achieved a 42% increase in passenger numbers in 2005 to over 530,000, compared with the previous year. Passengers on the airport’s scheduled routes rose by 34% as a result of a number of new daily services operated by international airlines whilst the holiday charter business almost trebled since 2002 to in excess of 55,000 passengers in 2005.

The airport expects increased activity in 2006 as it targets new routes to primary and regional UK and European destinations. Growth in passenger numbers will also be assisted by the development of a new hotel and leisure complex and the decentralisation of the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs at sites near the airport.

Knock International Airport

EMPLOYMENT MATTERS
Graduation Ceremony

Award winners Viachaslau Ziarnitski and Natallia Chuyeva

Some 28 young students successfully completed the Trainee Manager Development Programme (TMPD) and were presented with their Certificates at a Graduation Ceremony at Fáilte Ireland’s offices in Dublin at the end of January.

‘Student of the Year’ and ‘Perfect Menu’ awards were won respectively by Viachaslau Ziarnitski and Natalie Chuyeva who were delighted to be presented with a prize of a trip to Tuscany in Italy.

Commenting on the awards, John Power, Chief Executive, IHF, said, “It is heartening to note that all 28 of the graduates intend to remain within the industry with many planning to go on to further study and complete a diploma in hotel management whilst others will doubtless go on to study for their degree.”

Pictured left to right: Martin Holohan, Chairman, Trainee Manager Development Programme; Brid Duggan, Graduate, Fitzgerald Woodland House Hotel, Adare; John Power, Chief Executive, IHF; Cyril Laffan, Graduate, Jurys Inn Limerick and Seán O’Malley, Manager of Education Operations, Fáilte Ireland.

The TMDP entails working and training on-the-job, with time off to attend lectures in Galway/Mayo Institute of Technology. The programme is run in conjunction with the IHF, Fáilte Ireland, IHI and GMIT and is certified by HETAC.

The programme is an important partnership between Fáilte Ireland and industry to improve the skills base of the hotel industry. The qualification is jointly validated by Fáilte Ireland, the Irish Hotels Federation, the Irish Hospitality Institute and GMIT. All graduates received the Trainee Manager Development Programme certificate, the Fáilte Ireland Management Studies certificate, and graduate membership of the Irish Hospitality Institute.

The SÁMAS deluxe destination spa at the Park Hotel Kenmare, Co. Kerry, has been listed as one of the world’s best spas at the Condé Nast 2006 Readers Spa Awards. The spa was ranked number four in Europe and was the only spa in Ireland to be included on the list, which was announced at a glittering ceremony in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Hyde Park in London.

Speaking at the award ceremony, John Brennan, General Manager of the Park Hotel Kenmare, said, ”We are delighted to be included in the Readers Spa Awards from Condé Nast Traveller. It is one of the most prestigious publications and our inclusion is of great encouragement to us all. I am delighted for all my colleagues.”

The list was compiled based on questionnaires circulated in the Condé Nast Traveller magazine in September 2005 and categorises spas under ten headings. The category Hotel Spas in which SÁMAS featured also included the Thalassa in Cyprus, the Four Seasons George V in Paris, the Victoria Jungfrau in Switzerland and La Residencia in Mallorca.

Park Hotel SÁMAS Spa

Celia Larkin’s Beauty at Blue Door Salon has opened at the Castletroy Park Hotel, Co Limerick. The salon provides a range of beauty treatments including massage therapy, facials and reflexology.

The salon will be open to hotel guests and non-hotel guests alike and will allow the hotel to provide specialised leisure packages including special interest items such as carefree pampering packages, bridal preparations and care treatments for expectant mothers.

Membership is now available for the Knightsbrook Golf Course at the Knightsbrook Hotel & Golf Resort in Trim, Co Meath. The stunning championship course, which opens from May 2006, was designed by Christy O’Connor Jnr and membership will provide golfers with views over mature undulating parkland, incorporating the Knightsbrook River and 14 demanding water features with nine lakes.

The course features specialist American creeping bent grass greens and a gentle course gradient and should prove a pleasure to play in any season thanks to its year round course play specification. The course will be completed by a contemporary clubhouse, including luxury locker rooms and a superb golf shop will complete the offering and will be open from May 2006. The offering is part of the Knightsbrook Hotel & Golf Resort, which will also include a contemporary four star hotel, conference centre, health club & spa and holiday homes located 26 miles from Dublin in the picturesque heritage town of Trim.

Artist’s impression of the 18th hole at the Knightsbrook Golf Course

The Talbot Hotel Group has launched the first phase of a new partnership scheme with Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin. The scheme will provide families of sick children at the hospital with an opportunity to relax, unwind and take a break from their daily routine with a complimentary weekend in The Stillorgan Park hotel in Dublin. The Talbot Hotel Group will also give the hospital a complimentary weekend for a well deserving staff member in one of its hotels. In addition to this, the proceeds from the cloakrooms in the Talbot hotels and the sales of the Crumlin badges will go directly to the hospital each month.

According to Philip Gavin, Managing Director of the Talbot Group said, “We are delighted that we can now give back to the community and provide some added comfort to those most in need. This partnership is of the up-most importance to the Talbot Group and we only hope that we can inspire other such initiatives to take place.”

Siobhan Farragher, General Manager, Flannery’s Hotel, and Paul Halpenny, Managing Director, Best Western International Ireland.

Flannery’s Hotel has been awarded the Best Western Highest Quality Hotel Award 2005 at a ceremony in Galway. The hotel achieved overall best scores in their 2005 Quality Assessment and in maintaining excellent brand standards.

General Manager Siobhan Farragher accepted the award on behalf of the hotel from Paul Halpenny, Managing Director, Best Western Ireland, at the event which took place at a recent Best Western Ireland annual members meeting.

The Ciúin Spa and Wellness Centre has introduced exclusive Microdermabrasion and tailored Molten Brown treatments as part of its offering at the Slieve Russell Hotel Golf and Country Club, Co. Cavan. The Microdermabrasion treatment, which is based on a jet of fine crystals, leave the skin blemish free, softer, smoother and younger looking. The Molton Brown treatment incorporates a range of therapies in the Renew, Radiance, Replenish and Regenerate journey designed to restore well being to reinstate rhythm and harmony in body, mind and spirit.

The spa currently offers 17 treatment rooms with an exclusive Hydro Area. Soothing music is piped throughout the spa to sustain an atmosphere of detachment from the outside world. In addition to the treatment rooms, the centre offers a Hydro Area with a herb sauna, a hammam, a salt grotto, a flotation therapy facility, a hydrotherapy spa and health showers.

The Ciúin Spa and Wellness Centre at the Slieve Russell Hotel Golf and Country Club, Co. Cavan.

Schoolhouse Hotel, Dublin

Refurbishment has commenced at the Schoolhouse Hotel in Ballsbridge, Dublin. The project, which is inspired by the arts and crafts movement of the 1860’s, will result in a new look for the hotel’s guest rooms, boardroom and lobby in keeping with the building’s long and interesting history.

All 31 guest rooms will be individually named and decorated with famous papers and fabrics by William Morris, an extremely influential designer of the period. In keeping with the requirements of discerning guests, the rooms will be equipped with 26 inch LCD interactive TVs, which will play both music and movies on demand, and email and wireless broadband will be supplied in addition to fully controllable air-conditioning and heating.

The hotel will operate as normal throughout the programme, and the estimated completion date for the project is mid to late March, 2006.

Management at the Connemara Gateway Hotel have welcomed Galway County Council’s decision to grant planning permission for the development of the property. The permission will allow the hotel to expand and substantially improve facilities for both the local community and tourism in the area, thereby adding to the employment prospects for the local community.

The development will include a dining room with seating for 300, a theatre style multi media function room, a banqueting room for 400, two fully equipped commercial kitchens, 56 new en-suite bedrooms, six luxury suites and a state of the art leisure complex. The leisure facilities will incorporate a family sized swimming pool, a splash pool, steam and sauna rooms, squash courts, an indoor virtual reality golf driving range, a games room and a hi-tech gymnasium with climbing wall.

Paul Dunphy has been appointed Hotel Manager for Sheraton Fota Island Golf Resort in Co. Cork. Paul began his career with Starwood Hotels in 2001 as Food & Beverage Manager at the Westin Dublin Hotel in Ireland, and in July 2003 he was promoted to the position of Executive Assistant Manager. Paul Dunphy holds a Masters in Hospitality Management from Hibernia College in Dublin and a Diploma in Hotel Management from the Dublin College of Catering.

Rory Fitzpatrick has been appointed General Manager of the Quality Hotel and Leisure Centre Wexford. Rory joins Quality Hotels from Jurys Inn Chelsea in London where he was Deputy General Manager for the past two years. Rory is a graduate of Galway/Mayo Institute of Technology and holds a National Diploma in Hotel and Catering Management.

Thomas Langan has been appointed Sales Manager for the Galway Radisson SAS Hotel and Spa. Thomas is a graduate in Marketing of GMIT with an honours degree in Business and Marketing. Thomas has worked actively with the promotions department of the nightclub in the Galway Radisson SAS Hotel & Spa prior to his new appointment as Sales Manager.

Christoph Haustein has been appointed Director of Sales and Marketing at the Crowne Plaza Hotel at Dublin Airport. Christoph will be responsible for building relationships with corporate and airline segments and driving sales and marketing activities in the hotel’s new conference and events centre opening in July 2006. Christoph joins the Crowne Plaza from the Kempinski Hotel in Frankfurt, Germany, where he was Director of Sales and Marketing.

David Mc Williams Economist, Broadcaster and Author

The landscape of modern Ireland has and continues to change at a dramatic pace. The Celtic Tiger may have come and gone but the economy is continuing to thrive, bringing with it unparalled prosperity. Ireland's economic boom has created full employment and is attracting workers from around the world. Our country is no longer a homogenous society but is evolving into a multicultural one.

Economist, broadcaster and author David McWilliams spoke to Innsightabout Ireland’s economic success, the nation’s youthful demographics and the implications for the tourism and hospitality sector.

Most sections of the Irish economy, personal and business, have thankfully reaped the benefits, particularly through the boom in property values, which continue to defy the kind of cyclical trends once taken for granted by economists.

The reason for our newfound wellbeing, according to McWilliams, is very simply a fundamental change in the demographic makeup of the country. “This is still a relatively young population and it will remain so until the 2020s when the age profile will begin to move up rapidly,” he suggests.

“In about three to four more decades, the average age will have risen from under 30, as it is now, to late 40s, and Ireland will in effect have become more like a normal European country.”

In the meantime, our young population, augmented by mostly youthful immigrant labour, will continue to drive the economy and the relentless demand for new homes that has partly been responsible for the property boom. McWilliams, in his recent book The Pope’s Children writes of the broadening Irish middle class and how, through what he terms the “Wonderbra” effect in which people from lower socio-economic groups have been pushed up the social ladder.

Despite the continuing youthfulness of the population, he is not convinced about property values. “I really don’t see how property values can remain as high as they are at present. With homes costing 14 times a person’s average wage, I feel that’s a compelling argument that they must fall,” he comments.

He is also a bit concerned that the unprecedented expansion in hospitality assets may have been taken too far. “Property is regarded as such a safe bet that hotel owners have no problems availing of increased borrowing facilities to roll out expansions and new developments,” he cautions. “These new properties are not, I fear, based on cash flow measurement, but are rather based on bankers’ views of property.”

McWilliams warns that the expansion in Ireland’s room stock has not been driven totally by demand or expectations of demand but “by cheap credit supported by property values.”

He reckons the greying of the population, albeit still a bit off, offers interesting challenges for the hospitality sector. As the average age rises into the late 30’s, 40’s and beyond, “the wellness factor” will come into play and a lot more people will have more disposable income to play around with and more time in which to spend it. This will create an “upscale lifestyle change” as people begin to place more emphasis on considerations of “mind, body and spirit.”

In terms of hospitality, McWilliams believes this will increase demand for spa, massage and health facilities and that people will simply go abroad if the industry in Ireland does not respond. McWilliams reckons the spa/health business is today worth approximately €1 billion in Ireland and can grow five-fold by 2010.

He advises that Irish tourist authorities should re-think their current marketing strategy as it involves the North American market. The focus, he reckons, should be mainly on European markets. “Too much is spent on trying to attract Americans here on long-haul flights when there are more people and richer markets on the Continent.” He argues that we should now abandon “the Ballyporeen syndrome;” although, he is not advocating ignoring the North American market entirely.

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