The Irish Hotels Federation today announced it is encouraging its 1,000 members to participate in a 'special offer' menu initiative, which will offer patrons quality menus at a range of attractive fixed prices. The initiative developed in conjunction with the Restaurants Association of Ireland will result in consumers having a wider choice of menu options some of which will offer an all in price for a number of meal courses.

Addressing over 400 delegates at the IHF's Annual Conference in the Galway Radisson, Mr Power suggested that it was an innovative scheme which will encourage people to eat out more regularly while enjoying quality creative cooking at affordable prices.

The initiative involves premises individually developing a range of menus that can include a number of different course options for a set price, for example 2 course options for €10 and €20; 3 course options for €20 or €30 euros etc. Each premises will design their menu creations to reflect the needs of their market and in keeping with their cuisine style and quality. These menus will be in addition to the a la carte and other existing menus.

"It is a great opportunity to highlight the innovation that many hotel chefs provide in terms of quality and creativeness with Irish menus. Whilst there will be 'value' options, quality will not be compromised and people can be assured of receiving a high quality meal that has been prudently priced," said John Power.

Mr Power referred to the difficult challenges facing the tourism sector over recent years, including Foot & Mouth, Sept 11th and losses of US visitors. He stressed that given the testing economic conditions, competitiveness has to be the corner stone for any business to successfully trade. This initiative is an example of the industry putting real tangible solutions in place to demonstrate competitive pricing whilst maintaining excellence in product and quality.

"The hotel and guesthouse sector has suffered many setbacks in the last two years and with global uncertainty over Iraq, 2003 looks set to be another difficult year. Competitiveness is the key to the sector's survival and growth and it is up to all members of the Federation to strive to be more competitive at every level in order to successfully overcome the many challenges the industry faces", Mr Power continued.

"A guide will be produced for consumers to identify the participating premises in their area and in locations they may be visiting. It is a positive co-ordinated industry response to demonstrate in a uniform fashion the good value available in Irish hotels for quality dining.

"A lot of premises have been offering 'special' dishes and indeed menus previously, in this way we are attempting to co-ordinate the offering nationally and take the opportunity through a planned marketing campaign to promote it effectively to consumers," concluded John Power.

The 'special value' initiative will be officially launched later in March by Mr John O'Donoghue T.D., Minister for Arts, Sports & Tourism when all marketing and printed materials will be available for consumers.

For further information contact:
Siobhan Molloy / Niamh Boylan
Weber Shandwick FCC
Tel: 01 676 0168 or (086) 817 50 66 / 086 380 9191
Email: nboylan@webershandwick.com