News Blog - Hotel and Catering Review

The Talbot Collection wins big at annual Irish Hotel Awards

Proving they are among the cream of the crop when it comes to Ireland’s competitive hospitality sector, The Talbot Collection were this week proud and elated as they picked up a staggering eight accolades during the annual Irish Hotel Awards. The awards ceremony, a yearly event that showcases the standout hotel venues and teams across the country, took place at the exclusive Galmont Hotel & Spa in Galway, where three of [...]

The Europe Hotel & Resort opens €3m staff accommodation

Killarney Hotels has officially opened four new state of the art staff accommodation blocks at the five-star Europe Hotel & Resort in Killarney, Co. Kerry, just in time for the busy summer season. The two-story accommodation blocks each contain 10 bedrooms, living quarters, terraces and extensive planting to enhance the surroundings. As one of Ireland’s leading tourist destinations, Killarney and the surrounding areas are under pressure, in [...]

The Westin Dublin Launches Newly Refurbished Luxury Suites

The Westin Dublin has invested €500,000 into renovating its range of premium and exclusive suites. Working alongside award winning Irish firm, Millimetre Design, The Westin Dublin is proud to bring to the market Dublin’s newest hotel suites. The finished product compliments the culture and history of the building and suitably honours the vast heritage of the hotel, while ensuring maximum guest comfort. The bedrooms, bathrooms and separate [...]

Keep Cork Meeting Business Tourism Event

Cork Convention Bureau (CCB) will host its 7th annual business tourism showcase, Keep Cork Meeting, at Pairc Ui Chaoimh on Thursday 11th April from 7.30am to 12 noon. The event is ideal for anyone involved in organising events and meetings in Cork. Keep Cork Meeting, which is Ireland’s longest running meetings and events expo, aims to encourage more conferences, meetings and events in Cork, and gives hotels [...]

How to make sure your guests are safe

If you are looking to run a business in hospitality, or are currently managing one, no doubt you’re aware of all the aspects that need your attention. For one, you need to figure out how to stand out from the competition. Another, you’ll need to decide who your audience is, and what they want to see from your company. But while you’re working hard to put yourself [...]

Adare Manor hosts Michelin Star Award-Winning Chef Hywel Jones for a Special Guest Chef Culinary Experience

The 5* Adare Manor, voted ‘Hotel of the Year 2018’ at the world-renowned global Virtuoso ‘Best of the Best Awards’, is delighted to announce and welcome award winning Michelin Star Executive Chef Hywel Jones for a special two-day luxury culinary experience. Hywel who has retained his Michelin Star for 12 consecutive years, and currently is Executive Chef for the Michelin-starred restaurant at Lucknam Park in Wiltshire and [...]

Minister Michael Creed lends a hand to boost tourism from Spain

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed TD, has been visiting Spain, as part of a ‘Promote Ireland’ programme around St Patrick’s Day. Minister Creed’s busy schedule included a meeting with Tourism Ireland and key Spanish travel professionals. “We are delighted that Minister Creed was with us in Madrid, to help us deliver the message about the many great reasons to visit the island of Ireland this [...]

Doing The Business in Mexico

Ireland was promoted as a top destination for business tourism at the annual Meeting & Incentive Forum (M&I Forum) - Americas 2017, which took place in Cancún, Mexico, in May. Tourism Ireland, together with a delegation of 11 Irish tourism companies, met with 185 meetings and incentive buyers from North and South America who were attending the event. Tourism businesses that attended the M&I Forum included [...]

Operators Join Global Travel Market

Nine Irish tourism companies joined Tourism Ireland at Global Travel Marketplace (GTM) in Nevada in May. The three-day event involved a programme of bespoke one-to-one appointments and networking sessions, providing an opportunity for the Irish tourism enterprises to meet, and do business with, influential travel advisors from North America. Alison Metcalfe, Tourism Ireland’s Head of North America, said that Tourism Ireland aims to deliver an over [...]

Mercantile Plans Major Revamp

The Mercantile hospitality group is planning a a20m investment programme following the settlement of legal disputes between shareholders which sees the 11 venues in the group being split between the two sides. Former Chief Executive Frank Gleeson will take control of restaurants Green Hen and Marcel’s, Farrier & Draper bar, and two suburban Dublin pub sites. The majority shareholders of Mercantile, including US-Irish building magnates Maurice [...]

SODEXO RECOGNISED AS A BUSINESS ALL-STAR

Sodexo, one of Ireland’s leading on-site services providers, was recognised as a Business All-Star Irish Global Multinational Corporation for 2019-20 by the All-Ireland Business Foundation at the accreditation ceremony in Croke Park, Dublin on Tuesday 12th March 2019. It is an independently verified standard mark for Irish businesses that is based on rigorous selection criteria; performance, trust and customer centricity. Irish businesses that successfully navigate the Foundation’s six-step adjudication [...]

Markree Castle Re-Opens

Sligo’s Markree Castle re-opened in March as an exclusive wedding and event venue following a a12m renovation that lasted two years. Along with weddings, Markree will also offer conference, incentive and team building packages. The 17th century Gothic castle in Co Sligo joins Ballyseede Castle, Bellingham Castle and Cabra Castle in the Corscadden family’s hotel and venue portfolio of the ‘Romantic Castles of Ireland’. The Gothic [...]

A Decade of Dylan

The Dylan Hotel just off Upper Baggot Street in Dublin 4 celebrated a decade since its opening by recently unveiling a a10m renovation that adds 28 guest bedrooms to its 44 guestrooms, creates 15 jobs, including roles in sales and for front of house and chefs, and multiple interior updates to the building. Formerly the Nurses’ Home for the Royal City of Dublin Hospital, the hotel’s [...]

Musgrave Offers Taste of Summer

Food lovers gathered at Musgrave MarketPlace Ballymun on June 27th for the Musgrave MarketPlace Summer Food Stories event, which offered attendees expert tips and hints from key tastemakers in the food industry. The event, which was hosted by John Healy of popular TV3 show ‘The Restaurant’, saw author, blogger and columnist Indy Power demonstrate summer-inspired dishes from her bestselling book, ‘The Little Green Spoon’. Taking inspiration from [...]

Taking the Wild Atlantic Way Around The World

The Aghadoe Heights Hotel in Killarney was the venue for the June board meeting of Tourism Ireland, which took place on June 14th. The board members met with local tourism operators prior to the meeting to discuss the tourism season and the extensive promotional programme that Tourism Ireland is undertaking to highlight Kerry, the Wild Atlantic Way, and the island of Ireland around the world this [...]

Cork Airport Opens New Restaurants

Cork Airport has launched its new and improved food offerings at Food Republic and Kinsale Café Bar following major investment from Aramark food services. Local suppliers for the new restaurants at Cork Airport include Fingal Ferguson (Gubbeen chorizo), Jane Murphy (Ardsallagh goat’s cheese), Bandonvale cheddar, Flahavan’s Oat porridge, G’s jams, Co Laois, Ballycotton smoked salmon, Glenillen yoghurts, Glenown ice cream, and Pallas Green for locally grown [...]

New Association for Visitor Attractions

The new Association of Visitor Experience and Attractions (AVEA) was launched at an event in the National Museum of Ireland at Collins Barracks on May 31st. The AVEA will provide a forum for the exchange of knowledge, information and advice between members, as well as offering external support systems and professional insight into the delivery of best practice in customer care, interpretation, and service standards. AVEA’s [...]

Teeling Celebrates 2nd Anniversary

Teeling Whiskey celebrated the second anniversary of its award-winning distillery on June 7th as it welcomed its 185,000th visitors through the door, Patricia Lienig and Vwe von Aeewoeselen from Frankfurt in Germany. Visitor numbers to the distillery have doubled in the past 12 months alone. Teeling Whiskey, which is now Ireland’s fastest growing whiskey brand, has launched three new products over the past year, including the [...]

Guinness’ Gravity Bar to Double in Size

The multi award winning Guinness Storehouse announced details of a 116m expansion plan which will see the iconic Gravity Bar double in size. With its panoramic 360 degree views over the city, Dublin’s highest bar has proven to be a highlight for the 16.5 million people who have visited the Guinness Storehouse since it opened in 2000. Subject to planning permission, it is hoped that construction [...]

Impressive Growth in Business Tourism Sector

The latest Fáilte Ireland estimates, based on CSO figures, indicate that business travel from overseas markets is worth in excess of a 700m to the Irish economy after growing by seven per cent during the period 2015 to 2016. The sector is estimated to support approximately 21,000 jobs. Reflecting this growth, Fáilte Ireland’s Business Tourism & Events team have directly influenced a 198m of promotable business [...]

Incentivising Corporate Buyers to Choose Ireland

A group of North American corporate and incentive buyers arrived in Ireland in May for a five day fact finding trip hosted by Fáilte Ireland in conjunction with Tourism Ireland.The buyers, who arrived into Shannon Airport, had the chance to carry out a number of site inspections at key venues across the country, including Adare Manor, Co Mayo, The Killarney Park Hotel and The Europe, Co [...]

Powerscourt Joins Luxury Global Network

Powerscourt Hotel Resort & Spa in Co Wicklow has become a member of prestigious global travel network Virtuoso, the number one network in the luxury travel industry, spanning more than 26 countries. “There’s a real kudos attached to being part of this network connecting prestige clients with leading travel providers like ourselves,” says John Costelloe, Assistant Director of Sales at Powerscourt Hotel Resort & Spa. Powerscourt’s [...]

Promoting WAW’s Cycling Potential

Fáilte Ireland announced on July 13th that it was teaming up with cycling specialists Ride Wild to launch the Wild Atlantic Way Cycle Sportif, a series of bi-annual cycling events along the coastal route (from Kinsale in West Cork to Muff in Donegal). The idea is to promote the Wild Atlantic Way as a cycling destination internationally and domestically, as well as attract visitors across the [...]

Ireland Breaks 1 Million US Visitors Barrier

Fáilte Ireland published its preliminary Tourism Facts 2016, a compilation of key findings on tourism performance in Ireland in 2016, on June 20th. With data from a number of sources, the report provides detail on where tourists came from, where they went in Ireland, why overseas tourists came to Ireland, where they stayed and what they did during last year. “This comprehensive reference guide for tourism [...]

TripAdvisor and Deliveroo Integrate Service Offering

TripAdvisor and Deliveroo recently announced the integration of Deliveroo’s restaurant network into the TripAdvisor desktop website, mobile web and mobile app experiences across 12 countries. Consumers browsing TripAdvisor restaurant listings now have the option to order food from more than 20,000 of Deliveroo’s restaurant partners spanning across 12 countries and more than 140 cities. By clicking the ‘Order Online’ button when browsing the TripAdvisor restaurant listing [...]