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frontline employees is for a hotel to bring group of new staff on a quick tour of the area, pointing out landmarks; another is to put local information on a DVD.

While Fáilte Ireland has always provided customer service programmes and professional development support to the hotel sector, Mr Pender says that attention has focused recently on the quality of visitor experience. Anecdotally, there was talk of a lack of knowledge among frontline staff in hotels. While they were working competently to standard procedures, there was a certain lack of spontaneity in the way some staff were interacting with guests.

The response was to come up with a radically different initiative in which Fáilte Ireland asked its nine instructors to leave their headquarters and spend April–June of this year going from hotel to hotel with a short, innovative customer service training course designed for frontline staff.

“Training could take from three hours to a full day, and over 3,000 staff members countrywide took part during that three month period. A lot of it involved role playing scenarios. The feedback was great. The course was well received and we’ll do it again next year with a new package.”

As elsewhere, cultural diversity is a feature of today’s Ireland in the hotel sector. Mr Pender concedes that there can be an issue with the level of local knowledge among frontline staff coming from abroad given the cultural differences that exist.

For some new staff, knowledge of the language may need to be increased; however, often staff from abroad may also have fluency in two or three extra European languages. “Some hotels run English classes and there is greater sensitivity now towards helping staff to integrate. We do a lot of training at entry level, and starting four years ago, we put our training content onto CD in 12 different languages.”

Current Fáilte Ireland initiatives include the Optimus programme, in which Irish firms work to meet international standards of best practice and customer care as laid down by the European Foundation for Quality Management. Fáilte Ireland has tailored this programme to the tourism and hotel sector and, to date, a total of 200 hotels have signed up.

Mr Pender says that Fáilte Ireland is also keen to offer support to the hotel trade in the current difficult trading environment. With that aim, a new onsite initiative providing specialised financial advice on how to manage costs will be piloted around the country from September.

“There's no point in giving general financial advice. It must be hospitality specific to make it relevant,” he says. “This is a way of responding to market conditions and offering support.”

Looking ahead, he states, “The challenge is to adapt to changing circumstances and to keep training and support up to date for the 230,000 people who work in the hospitality sector.”

Aidan Pender joined Fáilte Ireland in December 2003 and is responsible for tourism related training and education programmes in the areas of craft, business, and management skills as well as for consulting, advisory, and other support services designed to strengthen management capability and performance at enterprise level.

Mr Pender also manages Fáilte Ireland’s programme activity in the research, environment, and advocacy areas as well as its work on quality and standards relating to the tourism product.

In order to further drive sales and bookings this summer, the Irish Hotels Federation has launched a new Summer Special Offers section on Irelandhotels.com. The new section features packages with free added value activities to encourage customer bookings. Current activities on offer range from petrol vouchers, to a free round of golf or spa treatment to complimentary lake cruises, city tours, horse riding and gardening courses. The initiative went live on Irelandhotels.com with 66 online summer special offers. The campaign is expected to run until October.

The initiative allows properties to offer packages to customers to motivate them to book a stay with the added attraction of a free activity included in the package, without diluting room revenue. A concentrated PR campaign and a targeted email and CRM campaign have been promoting this initiative in both the domestic and UK markets.

Members have complete control over opting-into this initiative. However, if you are currently not using the booking engine on Irelandhotels.com, this option will not be available to you. Should you wish to avail of this new initiative along with the booking engine please contact the Marketing Department in the IHF Head Office on 01 497 6459.

The IHF encourages all members to load a suitable package through the In1 Management Console (IMC) If you have any queries in relation to this, or for further information, please contact Ronan Smyth or Stephanie Howard in the IHF Marketing Department on 01 497 6459.

Patrick Hanley has been appointed General Manager of the Cork International Airport Hotel. Prior to his recent appointment, Patrick assisted in the reopening of the former Jurys Hotel and the Berkeley Court Hotel in Ballsbridge. Previously, Patrick worked as Deputy Manager at The Park Hotel, Kenmare and as Property Operations Manager for The Oyster Circle, an overseas property company. Patrick is a graduate of the Shannon College of Hotel Management.

Lynda Foley has been appointed General Manager of the Days Hotel, Castlebar. She joins the team from the Carlton Atlantic Coast Hotel, Westport where she also held the position of General Manager. In her new role, Lynda will be responsible for overseeing the day-today management and operations of the four-star boutique hotel. A graduate of DIT, Cathal Brugha St, Lynda has over 15 years experience in the hotel industry and has worked in some of the world’s largest hotel groups including the Forte Hotel Group in Leeds and Dublin and the Fitzpatrick Hotel Group.

Tara Lyng has been appointed Business Development Manager at the new Charleville Park Hotel and Leisure Club. Prior to her recent appointment, Tara worked as Sales and Marketing Manager in the Quality Hotel Limerick and the Ambassador Hotel in Cork City for three and a half years. Tara is a graduate of DIT Cathal Brugha Street where she obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree in Tourism Marketing.

Mags Downey-Martin has been appointed as Sales and Marketing Executive at the Downhill House Hotel, Ballina, Co. Mayo. Prior to this, Mags held the position of Operations Manager at the Belfast Castle and Malone House. Previously, she worked as Front of House Manger at the Grand Opera House. Mags holds a Higher Diploma in Travel and Tourism Management and a BA (Hons) in Hotel & Catering Management from the University of Ulster.

Every economic indicator suggests that 2008 will continue to be an extremely challenging year for hotels and guesthouses. As a sector, we are now faced with increased labour and energy costs, growing domestic inflation, declining consumer sentiment and a strong euro coupled with significant reductions in oversees visitor numbers. With these conditions anticipated to continue into 2009, a primary focus for members must now be on reducing operating costs and streamlining business activities to ensure the future viability of our industry.

There a few things that, with careful monitoring and action, can help accrue savings. Given the increasing prices for electricity and gas, hotels and guesthouses can achieve significant savings by promoting a culture of energy awareness among staff. A starting point is to list all potential actions that could be taken and to brief staff. These measures could include:

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the members who have come on board for the Food for Kids initiative which we launched at the beginning of the month. I know from eating with my own three kids, that it is important to establish healthy eating habits early in life, so it’s great to see members taking a lead in helping parents choose healthier food options for their children. While we’re not expecting everything to change over night, the level of response from members and widespread approval for the initiative means we’re off to an excellent start.

• Educating staff to turn off lights when not in use;
• Turning off appliances and computers at the mains when not in use – stand-by mode still uses significant levels of energy;
• Ensuring heating and air conditioning is turned down in unoccupied rooms;
• Using, where possible, energy saving and fluorescent light bulbs;
• Installing sensors and timers in areas that are used only occasionally;
• Promoting guests to re-use towels where possible.

Competitiveness will remain a pressing issue for the foreseeable future; therefore, any cost saving measures must go hand in hand with a continued commitment to delivering a world class product based on the highest quality of service. Indeed, the excellent value on offer by members is clearly borne out by last month’s Consumer Price Index results which revealed a 1.3% drop in the price of hotel accommodation in July – the first drop of its kind in July since monthly CPI records began in 1996.

While there’s an onus on members to minimise cost, it’s also important that the Government and industry bodies work collectively to ensure the tourist industry is positioned to tackle the competitive challenges that are out of our direct control. With this to the fore, I look forward to welcoming Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Mr Martin Cullen, TD, along with Sean Quinn, Chief Executive of Failte Ireland, and Paul O’Toole, Chief Executive of Tourism Ireland to the Federation’s September Council meeting.

The meeting will provide members with a timely opportunity to highlight and discuss the challenges facing our industry - and importantly the potential solutions. In addition to local authority charges and spiralling wage costs, a pressing issue continues to be Ireland’s rate of VAT on accommodation which remains one of the highest in Europe. In the current economic climate, this strongly undermines Irish tourism’s competitiveness and needs to be addressed by the Government.

Matthew Ryan 
President

Consumption of fat is essential to the body. It provides energy, fat soluble vitamins and essential fatty acids (omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids). However, it is important to control the overall fat intake in the diet, as well as reduce the intake of specific types of fat, such as saturated fats and trans-fatty acids. Public awareness of trans-fat in foods has been increasing over the past few years amid scientific evidence that they have very unfavourable effects on blood cholesterol levels (they raise bad LDL cholesterol and reduce good HDL cholesterol) with a consequential, negative effect on heart disease risk.

Trans-fats are a natural component of animal fats and therefore are present in meat, milk and dairy products. However, these foods also make an important nutritional contribution to the diet which outweighs their moderate trans-fat content. In addition, recent studies suggest that these ‘natural’ transfats are not as bad for heart health as other trans-fats. Health concerns are therefore mainly focused on trans-fats that are formed during industrial processes applied to vegetable oils, like hydrogenation, to make solid fats (margarines, shortenings) for the production of confectionery, pastries biscuits and cakes – foods that in nutritional terms, only provide calories.

Dietary guidelines for heart disease prevention recommend reducing intakes of both trans-fats and saturated fat. The food industry has been responding by lowering the amounts of hydrogenated oil, which contains trans-fats, in foods. A recent FSAI survey confirms that actions taken by the food industry are working. Overall, 57% of products surveyed contained no detectable trans-fats and 23% contained low levels of trans-fats (low levels are = 2% of total fat being trans-fats). However, levels of saturated fats in many products were high and this is still a matter for concern.

To see the FSAI survey, visit: http://tinyurl.com/4ruq7a