(Front row, l-r): John Concannon, Director, Regional Development, Fáilte Ireland; Capt Brian Gordon, Master, MV Oscar Wilde; Elaine Warren, Chair, Fáilte Ireland, South East; Paul O’Toole, Chief Executive, Tourism Ireland, and (back row, l-r); John Lynch, General Manager, Rosslare Europort; Madeline Quirke, President, Wexford Chamber; Joe Palmer, General Manager, Fáilte Ireland, South East; Declan Mescall, Head of Passenger Sales, Irish Ferries.

The Regional Tourism Development Board of Fáilte Ireland South East recently held its quarterly meeting in Rosslare Europort on board the MV Oscar Wilde as guests of Irish Ferries. The Chair of the Fáilte Ireland regional board, Elaine Warren presented a Waterford Crystal ship’s decanter to the Master of the Oscar Wilde, Captain Brian Gordon.

TOURISM IRELAND LAUNCHES 
CAR VISITORS GUIDE

Tourism Ireland Car Touring Guide

Tourism Ireland in Great Britain recently launched a new brochure entitled ‘The long and winding roads of Ireland’, encouraging potential British visitors to discover the island of Ireland by car.

The guide includes themed driving tours, such as a Literary Ireland tour and a Film Locations tour; practical driving tips and detailed distance charts; as well as information on accommodation, restaurants and entertainment in each region and suggested general touring routes. The touring routes cover Northern Ireland, Ireland’s West Coast, Ireland’s East Coast and Ireland’s South Coast and are designed to highlight the main attractions in each region. For example, the five-day ‘Ireland’s South Coast Tour’ takes in Wexford, Hook Head, Kilkenny, Cashel, Cork and Killarney. The tour suggests places to stop and visit along the way, including the Dunbrody Emigrant Ship, the Rock of Cashel, Blarney Castle and Garnish Island.

SPA & WELLNESS
SKILLNET

A new Spa & Wellness Skillnet has recently been granted over €486,000 in funding from Skillnets for the 2007-2009 programme through the National Training Fund. Skillnets manages the Training Network Programme funded by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

At the launch of the Spa & Wellness Skillnet were (l-r): Valerie Walsh, Spa & Wellness Skillnet Manager; Kilian Fisher, Chief Executive, ILAM; and Mary O'Donoghue, Director, Spa Strategy Institute.

Network Membership

The aim of the Spa & Wellness Skillnet is to provide training for the development of spa managers and to enhance the skills of spa staff, leading to the development of a career pathway throughout the sector, to increased staff retention and to increased national competitiveness. The training is 80% grant funded, and spa businesses can avail of up to €25,000 worth of training.

Training is currently being provided in the following modules:

• Human Resource Management
• Business Planning & Leadership
• Marketing Management & Customer Service
• Finance & IT
• Health & Safety Operations/ Management
• Technical Operations/ Management
• Reception Skills & Cash Handling
• Sales
• IT Skills
• Customer Service and Interpersonal Communications

Modules can be taken by any of your staff to suit the needs of your particular business, or 6 modules can be taken to lead to one of two qualifications:

• Diploma in Spa & Wellness Management
• Certificate in Spa & Wellness Operations

For further information on the Spa & Wellness Skillnet, please contact 045-902236/8 or email spanet@ilam.ie. Further information is also available by visiting www.spaireland.eu

Guests enjoy a unique sky dining experience

Radisson SAS Royal Hotel Dublin was formally launched recently by Kurt Ritter, the President and CEO of The Rezidor Hotel Group. With an extravaganza of entertainment, fabulous food and the extraordinary experience of dining in the sky, over 500 guests enjoyed lavish hospitality in the stylish surroundings of the hotel.

For those brave enough to try Sky Dining, guests were helped on board a moving restaurant where, once hoisted in the air, they spent twenty minutes eating and drinking while floating high above the hotel and the city. Entertainment for the evening was provided by Sharon Shannon and her band, and guests on the night included An Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, TD, and TV presenters Colette Fitzpatrick, Derek Mooney, Sinead Desmond, Alan Hughes and Lorraine Keane.

Riverside Park Hotel, Enniscorthy recently celebrated its tenth anniversary. The hotel has been extensively developed since its early days, with the addition of the luxurious Riverside Leisure Club incorporating a swimming pool and a fully air conditioned fitness suite. In 2005, the hotel underwent further redevelopment with a €2 million refurbishment investment.

Members of staff at Riverside Park Hotel

The Flynn hotel group recently announced the addition of the four star Newpark Hotel in Kilkenny to its portfolio of luxury hotels, which now includes the Imperial Hotel Cork, the Old Ground Hotel, Ennis, the Park Hotel, Dungarvan and Kytlers Inn, Kilkenny.

The family owned hotel group has invested over €20 million in the past three year’s resulting in the doubling of its total bedroom capacity to over 400 rooms. This investment is set to continue, with a €5 million refurbishment to the Newpark hotel, which will see an addition of state-of-theart leisure and health spa facilities as well as a complete redevelopment of the hotel’s ballroom and conference facilities.

Roganstown Hotel Golf and Country Club installed a wood-chip burner at their luxury Georgian house in 2007 and by doing so have successfully reduced their carbon footprint and annual heating bill by over 40%. The wood burner has taken 550 tonnes of CO2 emissions out of the ozone layer and it is currently heating the entire 52 bedroom hotel along with its swimming pool and banqueting facilities.

Ian McGuinness, proprietor of the estate, stated, “The €220,000 cost of installing the burner will be fully recouped by the end of 2009. We are now using 50% less LPG gas than we were last year and our overall heating costs have been reduced by as much as €70,000 in one year.”

(l-r): Ray Fitzpatrick, Angela Doyle, Sean O’Keefe, Manager; Robert O’Brien, Margaret Nevin and Clement Gleeson, Days Hotel, Kilkenny.

Staff and management of the Days Hotel, Kilkenny recently ran a Teddy Bears picnic in aid of the Paediatric unit in St Luke’s Hospital and successfully raised €2,300.

CONDÉ NAST ACCOLADE 
FOR CAPELLA CASTLEMARTYR

Peter Bowling, General Manager, Capella Castlemartyr with staff and management at the hotel.

The Condé Nast Traveller has named Capella Castlemartyr hotel in their esteemed 2008 Hot Hotel List. This is the magazine’s annual definitive guide to the hottest new hotels around the world - only 65 hotels are selected from a list of thousands. Experts from all over the globe have compiled this elite list. Peter Bowling, General Manager, Capella Castlemartyr, commented, “We are absolutely delighted that the first Capella hotel in Ireland has been included in this prestigious list and that Conde Nast Traveller recognises our high standard of personal service on which we pride ourselves.”

Syed Rizvi has been appointed Deputy General Manager at the Fitzpatrick Castle Hotel, Killiney. Prior to this, Syed held the position of Deputy General Manager of the Great Southern Hotel Dublin and the Radisson SAS Dublin Airport. Syed is a graduate of the Shannon College of Hotel Management.

Gabriele Molari has been appointed General Manager of the Ashbourne Marriott Hotel. Prior to his recent appointment, Gabriele held the position of General Manager of the Cork International Airport Hotel. Previously, Gabriele worked in The Savoy, London and the Royal Berkshire, Ascot. Gabriele holds a degree in hospitality and an executive MBA.

Roderick Smith has been appointed General Manager of the Park Inn, Shannon Airport. Prior to his recent appointment, he held the position of Executive Assistant Manager in the Park Inn Hotel, Dundalk. Previously, Roderick worked in the Radisson SAS Hotel, Manchester Airport as Sales Manager.

Ann Downey has been appointed General Manager at the Connemara Coast Hotel, Galway. Previously, Ann held the position of Deputy General Manager at Fitzpatrick’s Castle Hotel, Killiney. Ann holds an honours degree in Commerce from UCC and a Masters degree in Hotel and Tourism Management from the University of Ulster.

Michael Skehan has been appointed General Manager of the Glashaus Hotel & Tallaght Cross Hotel. Prior to his recent appointment, Michael held the position of General Manager in the Tower Hotel, Waterford. Previously, Michael worked in Whites in Wexford and Mount Juliet. Michael is a graduate of Cathal Brugha Street.

Ann Riordan, Chairman 
Dublin Tourism

As Ireland’s most popular tourist destination, Dublin has outperformed many of its international competitors in recent times with visitor numbers almost doubling over the past decade. While the city has increased its share of the tourism market, competition from other European destinations continues to intensify as new destinations come online every year.

Ann Riordan, Chairman of Dublin Tourism, spoke to Innsight about the Authority’s 2008–2010 Regional Plan for Dublin, the importance of the traditional ‘Irish Welcome’ in attracting visitors, the perception of the region in terms of value for money and the initiatives planned for growing the city as a major business tourism destination.

Dublin’s continuing success is essential both for the city’s economy and for the health of Ireland’s tourism industry. In addition to being a destination in its own right, Dublin is the principal gateway to Ireland and 50% of its holiday visitors also travel to other regions.

While Ms Riordan notes that 2008 will be a challenging year with the strong Euro and economic slowdown, she is optimistic about future growth in tourism. She states, “We are projecting a growth rate of 6% per annum over the next three years. We’re aiming to attract a further 300,000 visitors to Dublin each year.” she states.

She points out that Britain is still a major market: “In 2007, over 1.8 million visitors came from Britain, with 1.7 million coming from mainland Europe; 750,000 from North America and 250,000 from other parts of the world.”

In order to become more visible in the marketplace, Dublin Tourism intends to raise and commit a substantially increased budget with which to promote the Dublin Region in its target markets.

The Authority has launched a three year regional plan - designed to bring an additional one million overseas visitors to the capital by 2010 - around its ambitious e-marketing strategy.

As part of the strategy, Dublin Tourism is breaking new ground with an award winning website that uses state of the art technology to reach target markets. Interactive features include i-walks in the form of podcasts for visitors to use as they go on walks around the capital. The Authority is also pioneering a dedicated website for mobile phone users with the development of www.Dublin.mobi, capitalizing on an area with huge potential for marketing and one which Ms Riordan is well placed to exploit given her background as former Country Manager of Microsoft Ireland.

However farseeing the Authority’s marketing strategy may be, Ms Riordan has not lost sight of the more familiar cornerstones of the capital’s tourist offering. “We offer excellent service and an excellent product offering, and these go hand in hand with our world famous traditional welcome,” she says.

In today’s competitive marketplace however, visitors demand value for money. How does the capital measure up? According to Ms Riordan, the latest industry survey indicates that accommodation rates are generally seen as very good value for money. It’s more likely to be the cost of eating out or having a cup of coffee that can cause concern. “We’ve just got our visitor survey figures for 2007, and 87% of those surveyed say that Dublin offered good value for money. Of the 13% who said it did not offer good value, 44% were from Great Britain, and 34% had come from mainland Europe,” she says.

What is vital in attracting visitors, Riordan believes, is how well we treat visitors when they get here and how friendly our welcome is. She says, “An important part of our strategy going forward is to create ambassadors.

Continued on page 9.