Failte 18april2024

This program is kindly sponsored by Letter Frack Country Shop, 095-418-50. This program is kindly sponsored by Letter Frack Country Shop, 095-418-50. For more information, visit www.conamarafm.com. It's available on the telephone if you'd like to contact us at any time during the day or during the week. It's available from 4pm to 6pm. And you'll get all the information you need. Good evening listeners, you're very welcome to the tourism program. My name is Carmel Murray and Linda is here with me today. And we're broadcasting as always on 87.8 and 106.1 FM. And you can get us any time, day and night, during the week on www.conamarafm.com. Now, the big news this week is that summer is coming. We have been told it lots of times, but we didn't believe it. It was supposed to have come, started yesterday, actually Tuesday, actually, two days ago, but it didn't. We don't know why, it passed over or whatever, but something got in the way. Yesterday was okay, but it is promised to be nice for the rest of the week anyway, at least. So let's all get out there and enjoy it. And think positive about it, because really there are areas in the world that would give what I wouldn't think would be too much for some of our lovely April showers. Now, they're not all April, lovely April showers, because the hailstones were hopping off our window yesterday while one of them was falling. So hopefully that's the end of that. Thank you, listeners, for all the positive comments on our program last week. And especially on our guests, but especially on John Sweeney when he gave us the updates on the digital hub, which a lot of us thought was probably dead in the water. But no, there's great news, they're working away on it and making progress. And the other thing was maybe entertainment might be coming as well for young people. And as you know, this area is starved of discos and music and entertainment for young people. I mean, if they're sports fanatics, there's loads of it. There's absolutely every kind of sport available, which is brilliant as well. But for music and entertainment, maybe there might be something in the pipeline. We'll wait and see. John told us that somebody was planning something, so we'll see. Mahal was held last week in Killarney. Now, Mahal is an annual event where all the agents of the world get together. They're invited to come to Ireland in one place where everybody involved in tourism in Ireland throw their shot at them and try and secure business for their area or their branch of tourism. So we will be talking to Helena Healy, who is the CEO of B&B Ireland later, and she'll tell us more about that. Now, my guests for today, and I hope you find them interesting as they always are. My first guest is Maura Fahey. Maura is the owner of Fahey Travel in Galway, and she will give us an update on this year and what to expect. Next, I'll be talking to Donal Healy. Donal is the head of marketing and communications and route development at Ireland West Airport, and they're recording a brilliant start to the year. So hopefully that launch of their Bumper Summer Schedule will continue and will be successful. And then, as I said, we have Helena Healy, who is the CEO of B&B Ireland. And last but not least, we have Brian Hughes, who is the owner of the Abbey Glen Hotel, and a general update on hotels in general, the appointment of a new IHF manager, or CEO, I mean, and he'll tell us more about Clifton and what's happening in their hotel and the hotels in Clifton in general. So now we have our first guest on the line for this evening, and that is Maura Fahey. Good evening, Maura, and you're very welcome back to the tourism program. Thank you. It's good to have you back, and good to know you're still there working away. We certainly are. Dizzy, dizzy, dizzy. Yeah, I mean, was it 40 years you told me last year? 40 years that I'm in the business, is it? No, the whole Fahey travel. Oh, Fahey travel, 140 years. 140 years, oh my God. Yeah, I'm the fourth generation of Faheys involved in this business. So a lot of your listeners, I'd say, you know, grandparents would have booked with my great-grandmother and Kate going off to the States a long, long time ago. I imagine, yeah, yeah, I know. And at that time, everybody had to book, like, so you really did get a feel of, you know, who was coming, going and the numbers and everything, which was... And as well as that, they got the personal service that you won't get on any online agency, that's for sure. Absolutely, and we hope we're still giving it here. You are indeed. We know that experience has told us personally that, you know, you do that. But what are the benefits, Maura, of booking with a travel agent? You know, at the polls to direct online. Yeah, I guess what's important for us and for people who are spending money is the protection of that money. So we all have to be licensed and bonded for the money that passes through our hands here. So that's the first thing. People are totally secure spending money with us, all these scams that you hear on online purchases at the moment. And the other thing is our expertise. The big thing is our expertise. We're mothers here. We all have families. We have honeymooners. We have cruisers. So we have a wealth of experience here. We've been to most destinations that we sell. So our years of experience has been able to help us to advise customers. People are traveling with young kids. People are looking for that special honeymoon. Somebody who wants to go on a cruise, and there you've got eight or nine cruise companies on sale out of Ireland. How do you pick the right one for you? Great. So we help with that. Sorry, Maureen. You mentioned you're licensed, which is necessary. By whom? It's now called the IAA. It used to be the Commission for Aviation Regulation. But they have merged with the airline industry now. So it's now the IAA. The aviation industry. It's a government body. Yeah. And you can't trade unless you have a bond in place, which means if, God forbid, other travel agents have gone, you know, for bad times, your money's protected. Yes. That's good. So, Maura, what are the most popular destinations? I know we know of all the new ones. A lot of people are talking, oh, you know, you've been to Canaries or whatever or something. You must go here, there, and everywhere. How are you finding bookings to other destinations? Well, our core business probably is the summer sun and cruise. But there's quite a lot of family visits still happening. I don't know if we discussed this the last time, but it's still happening, family down in Australia. The price of the airline tickets is kind of prohibited for somebody to come home with their family. So we have a lot of parents going out. We have parents meeting halfway. Families fly out to Dubai, and their siblings or children from Australia flying up to Dubai to meet them halfway. Halfway, yeah. And Canada is the other big one. A lot of Irish people working in Canada now, and a lot of their parents going out to visit and maybe doing a holiday in conjunction with that, a couple nights in Toronto, fly drive through the Rockies or the likes of the Rocky Mountaineer, or a cruise out of Vancouver. We find that that's very popular for the long haul at the moment. Well, that's new, and that's something to be advertised and pushed a bit maybe because a lot of people wouldn't know, you know, a lot about Canada if you hadn't been there. Of course, yeah, it's a new destination. It's the new USA. It was all America, you know, for 20 years there for, oh, right up to COVID. I think probably a couple of, oh, two or three years before COVID when they opened the visa applications, a huge number of Irish people gone out there. Yeah. Now, we're talking about flight holidays where you would have to fly to. What about ferries and that more? You do ferry holidays and all of that, don't you, as well? Yeah, we do, but it's mostly for camping, camping holidays in France. Oh, yeah? Yeah. There's lots of that, though, isn't there? Oh, there is, yeah. Yeah, there is. And, you know, you can get a campsite anything from an hour, an hour and a half, to five to seven hours from the ferry port, and your holiday really starts when you board the ferry, down to Cork or Ross Lair, wherever you choose to go from, and we pre-book the ferry, the cabins, the campsites, and great for families with young kids, great freedom, great freedom. A lot of families going together, we find, is very popular, three or four families going together with children of the same age. And what I have heard from one of my nieces who has gone nearly every year, while her children were a little younger, was that the same families go every year to the same destination. Yeah, and that happens, I guess, with a lot of holidays. Yeah. People like the familiarity, they like to know where to go when they get there, they like to know where the nearest supermarket is, and they get familiar with beaches where, yeah, people do that. I guess it's an alternative to buying a property abroad, which a lot of people who can't afford to do that tend to find a favourite place, and they go back year after year. Yeah, we have a lot of that. We're talking about everything abroad, Mara. So, can we take it, I mean, post-COVID? Have all the deferred holidays, I'm sure you're hoping, have they finished? We feel that, yeah. We feel last year was a real bumper year, and it's not as good a year this year, but still can't complain. We're well back up on our pre-COVID levels, but there definitely was a big push last year, and people were going a little bit more high-end, or people who were doing land-based holiday might look at a cruise. Yeah. And people are doing bucket list trips because they haven't been away for so long. Now, we still have people coming on to us saying we haven't been away since COVID, but an awful lot less than this time last year, you're right. Right. And what about staycations? Are they finished? That, we don't sell staycations. No. How do you feel? Yeah, well, I think there's something like 100,000 beds taken out of the staycation. Yeah. You know, with long-term rentals now, so it's put awful pressure on other hotels to accommodate travelers and people coming in. Yeah, Irish accommodation, yeah. Yeah, it's got very pricey, really, so we're finding there's people coming on to us that haven't gone abroad before, looking for a holiday abroad. Yeah. The whole market, we love our own country. If you had the sunshine here, we probably wouldn't be in Mississippi at all. That's true. Yeah, well, I said at the top of my program, summer is coming, Maura. Yes. We're going to have it now from, I think, Saturday at midday or something. Weather, is it good weather? It's good weather, yeah. Good to be here. We have to think positive, otherwise we wouldn't cope with all this rain and, you know, constant. But today is actually a nice day here. It's lovely, yeah. Genuinely, hopefully. Yeah, it is, yeah. But, you know, I was going to mention to you when you were talking about the weather, I mean, it's ferocious flooding up in Dubai at the moment. Yeah. And if you're talking about the benefits of, you know, using a travel agent, we've had two families caught up in it now, yesterday and today. Really? Staff can't get to the airport to work, so there's an awful go slow on getting the flight checked in and boarded, and we check people in in advance. And we can monitor the situation from here. We have a family out there at the moment now, and they're, like, the queue is about three hours long, but we can see what's happening on our own systems here. So, you just never know where something like that's going to strike. True. Well, actually, my daughter's going till the end next week, the end of next week or something. So, I hope she's not listening to us. Well, hopefully it'll be over by then. Roads have collapsed and everything. The airport is in about four foot of water, so it's unprecedented, whatever's going on. Would they, well, I suppose they can't really, it's a prepaid holiday. Could they divert them to another, you know, to another area or something? Probably not. Probably not, and hopefully it'll be okay for next week. Yeah. Like, we thought it was bad yesterday, and there's a bit of a knock-on effect today, but they're very good at rallying around and getting their act together and getting the show back on the road. Great. Maura, do you want to give your phone number and website address? Yes, yeah. Probably more important for people who want to get in touch with you. Thank you. Lovely. Yeah, because all of our very popular properties are on our website, www.sahihtravel.ie. People can book there if they want, or if they prefer to give us a call, 091-594-747. 594-747. That's it. 747, right. And it's F-I-H-Y. F-I-H-Y. F-I-H-E-Y. F-I-H-E-T-R-A-V-E. Maura, it's been a pleasure talking to you, as always. Thank you for the update and the information, and hopefully you will have a good season, and the best of luck to you and all of yours for the summer. Thank you very much. And thank you for joining us today on the tourism program on Connemara Community Radio. Now, we'll have our first song for today, and as you probably all know, I'm a great fan of Tommy Flemings, but I was listening today on Facebook, it was. He has sung a beautiful, beautiful song, and this one he recorded at the Festival in Ballinan, and it's recorded for RT, but it's an absolutely beautiful ballad, and it's called The Orchard. The Orchard When I was nine, in harvest time I crossed that orchard wall The moon was bright, the apples ripe Upon the ground they'd fall We filled our slacks, then we made our way back More adventures, soon to find In an orchard, near the commerce In the sweet, dungard time I crossed that orchard wall again When I was just thirteen It was, I think, to be my first drink Of cider and of gin I remember it well, it tasted like hell And I hoped the pain would end soon In that orchard, near the commerce In the sweet, dungard moon When I was nineteen years of age I crossed the wall with pride My auntie Peck, with the nut-brown hair She was walking by my side Our clothes came off, we tumbled and we tossed The man on us, soon was gone In that orchard, near the commerce In the sweet, dungard moon When I was twenty-one years old I married my auntie Peck The apple blossom in the trees It was better in her head And when the day was over It was drunk for every tree In that orchard, near the commerce Near the sweet, dungard fields Now I'm forty-five, I'm much alive Children, I have four Three girls and one fine strapping son And I have hopes for more I'll teach them of what lies ahead I have plenty to tell and still In that orchard, near the commerce Near the sweet, dungard fields Now I'm ninety-one, my days are near done My auntie has long since gone Our days were good and well they should But it's time that I pass on And when I die, I want to lie Beneath those whispering trees In that orchard, near the commerce In the sweet, dungard fields And when I die, I want to lie Beneath those whispering trees In that orchard, near the commerce In the sweet, dungard fields I have plenty to tell and still In that orchard, near the commerce Near the sweet, dungard fields I wish I was the CEO I'm the marketing manager You have good news for us every year The first six months of last year you had 367,000 passengers But your first quarter already I think will probably exceed that by the end of six months How are you taking it? 29,000 passengers used the airport between the month of January and March And this was actually up 18% since the same period last year And actually a 6% increase on our previous busiest first quarter which occurred in 2019 So overall very positive that in what's typically the quietest quarter of the year And that they're not going to give up their holidays and get into sunnier climates Well I think with the kind of weather we've had, we've had winter since last August So I think all the more people need to get away for that break So they're doing it thankfully through Ireland West Airport So this summer we'll have flights to 22 international destinations We obviously launched a brand new service to Heathrow last March 12 months ago Which has proven to be hugely popular We had great throughput there last month with Mayo Plain in New York Now we're not going to talk of Mayo at the moment But really and truly the fact you're based in Mayo is brilliant for people like that For your group We don't begrudge them And on the flip side of that, Galway we're playing London the same weekend And we actually had a very very strong contingent of Galway people travelling out to Heathrow Great to see the regional diversity and colour from all over the region to the airport This summer we'll have flights to the likes of Tenerife and Lanzarote which are back again after a four year absence We have flights to Alicante, Malaga, Mallorca, Milan, Barcelona, Cologne Some of the more exciting destinations across Europe But really the bread and butter of the operation is our flights to the UK So we have daily flights to the likes of Heathrow, London Stansted, London Luton Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham, East Midlands and Liverpool which are all hugely popular And that's where the growth really in the first quarter of the year has come from In that an awful lot more people have been travelling over and back to the UK So it's been very positive to see And what is positive as well Donald is that your flights to Maine and the UK and all that They're all year round, they're not just summer flights You have them going the whole year which is brilliant It is indeed as you said and that has driven growth in the first quarter The fact that all the UK services operate throughout the year which is great Because it provides connectivity for loved ones, for visitors, for family members, all year round And for workers, people are working Aer Lingus and Ryanair I know, who is Loda Europe? Loda Europe is an airline that is a subsidiary of Ryanair and they operate our service to Mallorca So it's a weekly flight and it's actually starting next month So we're delighted to see that service returning and again another very very popular destination Great, now one development in your We all know that your flights are reliable, go on time and all the rest of it You have a fantastic record there whatever The baggage screening system, I only know, I haven't been there but I only know From hearing somebody else saying that your baggage screening system Has newly introduced it's next generation cabin screening It's a real real success and passengers are thrilled with it Tell everybody about it Yeah, we introduced as you said it's a next generation cabin baggage screening system So effectively we have two security screening machines They were completely replaced in November, just gone And they were replaced with two brand new machines Which really have been a game changer for the airport in terms of These machines now remove the need for passengers to remove Their laptops and liquids from their cabin bags So if you remember I suppose prior to November anytime you would come to the airport And I think most airports in Ireland and the UK and abroad You would have to take out your laptops, your iPads, your phones If you had any water with you or any soft drinks or that that are over 100ml You would have to take them all out of your bag, perfumes, fragrances And put them into, you'd have to check them in basically Or you'd have to leave them behind you effectively if you were going to present to that security So now since November there's no need to take out Your perfumes, your laptops, your iPads, you can leave them all in your cabin bag And put the bag through the system and the system will do the work from there on That's brilliant, great, that's fantastic That's brilliant so far, particularly for families travelling as you know Families with kids with devices and there's lots of shuffling that goes on Trying to get devices out of the bag, so it's up to them We know what Friar says, Carmel, and the experience has been very pleasant on air But this is even making it an even better experience this summer going to the airport Because especially I'm thinking of families travelling with kids They all have their iPads or electrical items, phones and laptops and whatever as well There wouldn't be just one person that would be stripping the case, it would be a big chore But that's an absolutely brilliant development People complain, still talk about the development charge at the airport That isn't at other airports But isn't this what it's used for And when it's explained to people that that's where the money is going I don't think anybody would complain about paying the 10 Euros No, absolutely not, and we get very few complaints every month I suppose when you look at the likes of 159,000 passengers going through I can tell you, Carmel, queries on the development fee I could count them on one hand, there's so few of them And that's predominantly because, as most people are used to it, people see the benefits at the airport They see the constant development, for example we resurfaced our car parks this year We've created more spaces, we've opened a new restaurant upstairs We've refurbished our departure shop What you'll see hopefully later this year is sheltered walkways So people won't be getting wet when they're waiting for the plane to board So these are all developments that are supported by the contribution of the development fee And without it, the reality is, Carmel, it's a critical contributor to the sustainability of the airport So the airport needs it, and the airport is built for the people of the West of Ireland And the development fee supports the ongoing sustainability of it That's only me being the devil's advocate Because I want to bring you on to, I know, as you said, I wanted you to defend it Because I know where it's going, and what you've done with it But you mentioned the development, or the tearing of the car park Your car parks are plenty, and very close to the airport Which a lot of people find very, very handy Have you extended them, or is it the same? We have resurfaced the car park, we've also made some additional spaces available And also, within a 10-15 second walk from the airport There's a whole newly resurfaced and lined car park With more spaces, and there's also additional spaces for people with reduced mobility So it's very important that we look after all our customer base And there's up to 10 new spaces located right at the car park Right next to the terminal, so literally get out of your car, 5 seconds later you're in the terminal All our car park spaces are on site, so we don't use shuttle buses around here You'll never have to walk longer than 2-5 minutes to get from the car park to the terminal That's brilliant, and as you said, eventually there will be an overhead walkway Sheltered, yeah So it's been lovely talking to you, as usual CEO, we still call you CEO, Marketing Manager of Ireland West Airport Thank you for the update, and hopefully if you have any more developments during the year You'll get back to us, and we'll be back to you But for today, thank you indeed for joining us on the Tourism Programme On Connemara Community Radio Now we'll have another piece of music And you may remember, last week I brought in a CD of my own That I was after buying in Galway, on the street From a street musician called James Gallagher So I'm just going to play another track From James' CD today The only hope you understand Is to win the heart of Martha My flower of sweet demand Her cheeks they are a rosy red Her hair is a golden brown And o'er her three white shoulders It carelessly hangs down She's one of the finest creatures That ever roamed the land And my heart is captivated by My flower of sweet demand If I had you lovely Martha Way down by any shone Or in some lonesome valley By the wild woods of Tyrone I'd work through all endeavor And I'd try to work my plan For to win the heart of Martha My flower of sweet demand I'd wander down by the lagoon To the steamship stall My boat is bound for Liverpool Down by the Isle of Man And I'll say goodbye, God bless you My flower of sweet demand And I'll say goodbye, God bless you My flower of sweet demand I hope you enjoyed that track from James Callagher. It was a lovely song and a lovely singer. Now, my next guest is Helena Healy and Helena is the CEO of B&B Ireland. And you've heard Helena each year giving us updates on everything that's happening in the bed and breakfast part of the tourism industry. Good evening, Helena, and you're very welcome back to the program. Good evening, Carmel. Thank you very much. I'm delighted to be back talking with you. It's great to have you, Helena. And I'm sure you're bursting with loads of news. But we'll start off first. I'm sure, were you at Mayhill last week? We were, absolutely, Carmel, yes. It was in Killarney again this year. There was almost 300 overseas tour operators in. We met with quite a lot of them. And as usual, the B&B sector is in big demand. But Ireland generally is in big demand, which is great news. 2024 is looking to be a good year, certainly as good as last year, Carmel. You think so? Last year was kind of a triad year post-COVID, wasn't it? And a lot of people who would have prepaid or deferred holidays would have been coming back. I presume you won't be having them this year. So where is the market increasing, or from where? Yeah, you're right, Carmel. I mean, the kind of leftovers from COVID is definitely spent now at this stage. There was a little bit of it last year, as you said, Carmel. But this year, the American market is certainly the one that's shown the best potential again this year, Carmel. That's not normal in the election year because the Americans generally don't travel that much during election years, do they? So that's good. You're absolutely right. That certainly would have been the view. Certainly our American shore operators are seeing good sales and Americans wanting to travel, which is great. The dollar, of course, is a big advantage. The dollar is almost on par with the euro. So that's definitely helping the Americans as well. That's a big improvement in it, isn't it? It used to be nearly two to the euro. You're right. And they love their dollar and they love the value they get. They love it. There is a little bit of a perception that Ireland has got very expensive. But because the dollar is nearly on par with the euro, it's kind of protecting the Americans. So that's why, and thankfully, that market is good because it's a great market, certainly for BNBs and the west of Ireland and Connemara. So I suppose, really, are we depending on countries where their currency is either comparable or strong against the euro, like America? Is that where our markets will be this year? Yes. Europe, obviously, is there as well. The French market is probably a very important market for Connemara. The French market is holding very well. We'd expect the French market to do as well as last year, and it was very good last year. The British market is very good as well. Again, they have a strong economy. The British market is certainly flat. It's going down and will be down again this year. It's understandable, though. It is. With their economy as it is. Absolutely, it is. But I think the French market, I mean, we all know how strong it is. Have you found, Helene, they don't even book anymore. They just know they're coming to Connemara. They did. There was the perception there that they would come to Connemara and that there was always accommodation. But this year is a different scenario, isn't it? Well, it is, Carmel. You know, with the 22% of hotels, mainly, is being contracted to the government for the Ukrainian crisis. So that certainly means that there's less accommodation. There's no doubt about that. And that's a shame. But look, you know, government have given us an assurance that they'll stop using that and that they'll start doing other things. But that's not going to help this year. No, because they have guaranteed, and I only heard it today on the news, that they have guaranteed the support for Ukrainians until March 2025, which is next March. Another year. Yeah, this year. But have you found, see, a lot of the bigger B&Bs and guest houses, they're gone as well to Ukrainian accommodation. They are. Some of them are, Carmel. You're right. Not to the same extent as, you know, the family-run hotels in rural Ireland. They're the ones that seem to have moved over. And that's a shame for lots of reasons. Because, you know, if the accommodation is gone, it means that the restaurants, the activities, everybody in the area suffers. Because, you know, the tourists are not in the hotel anymore or in that guest house or in that B&B. So, you know, it's not ideal. No. Certainly not ideal. No, I heard a guy from Killarney there last week before saying, you know, the ones who are actually making good money from hosting Ukrainian families are not considering the long-term effect. That's right. Yeah. And, you know, it's a long-term effect on beds for tourists, but it's also, you know, that the property itself will need a lot of money if it is to go back into being, say, a family-run hotel or whatever. Whatever, yeah, exactly. Have you found—how has your membership held up this year, Helena? Well, being the only membership, you know, we deal mainly with the traders. You know Carmel. And, you know, we could do with more members and we could do with more rooms. There's no doubt about that. So, you know, anybody that's out there that has spare capacity, please contact us. We'd be delighted to hear from you. Not interested, no. Are you closed, Carmel? I am indeed, Helena. Yeah, I closed last year. I stayed with you until September, just, you know, and yeah, I have closed. You were with us for a long time, so thank you for the loyalty and the work that you did. Thank you. Thank you. I did enjoy it. It was really—and I hated leaving and I just hated, you know, closing our doors. Mind you, as I said to somebody else, I have a few collector's items, I call them, who are, you know, phoning and saying they're definitely coming back. So, there's only just a few. So, that's okay. I can do that, you know. At my age now, a few is a lot. A few to me would be a lot. I know. But I'm enjoying it. You'll be well looked after. I'm enjoying it. Okay. Now, Helena, who's—I haven't checked up. I haven't even checked on your—who is the chair at the minute? Are you the CEO? Who is the chairman? Our chair is—yeah, our chair is a man called Paul O'Doughy. And some of the tourism sector would know Paul O'Doughy. Yeah. He used to be the CEO of Tourism Ireland. That's right. Yeah, yeah. He set up Tourism Ireland. So, a lot of your listeners would know Paul. So, we're very lucky to have him as chair. Yeah. And he's doing a fantastic job, and we're delighted that we have him. Great. Yeah. And you have your directors, too. We have. You're representative to each area. We have, Carmen. Isn't that right? Great. Now, do you want to— Yeah, perhaps. Yeah. In case you want more members, Helena, do you want to give out the information for them, where to go, where to look to see what you're about, and your website address? Sure, Carmen. Thank you for that. Our website is dandireland.com, so d-a-n-d-i-r-l-a-n.com. If they want to give us a ring, if they want to put some rooms with us, their phone number is 071982222, or the email address is admin at d-a-n-d-i-r-l-a-n.com. We'd be delighted to hear from anybody. Great. We have business for Connemara, and we don't have enough rooms, so we'd be delighted to hear from you. Great. Helena, it's been a pleasure talking to you, as always. Thank you for joining us on the— Thank you, Carmen. —tourism program on Connemara Community Radio. I hope you're all well up there in Donegal, and have a great season. Thank you to Aline Healy for all that update, and we wish everybody in the B&B sector and all in all accommodation sector a very good season. Now, before my next guest, I just want to remind you of the Connemara Marathon is on this weekend, and hopefully, as I did say, the sun is going to shine on Saturday at 12 o'clock, when I was only guessing, but I really and truly hope that it does, for all of these people who will be out in the wilds and the winds and everything, and hope that it will be a really good day and successful for everybody. Now, my last but not least guest today is Mr. Brian Hughes, and Brian Hughes is the owner of the Abbey Glen Castle Hotel. Good evening, Brian, and you're very welcome back to the program. Thank you, Carmen. I love being on your show. Thanks so much for inviting me. That's great. That's what we love to hear. Yeah, sometimes we think, God, we're a pain. We're bothering everybody, but we do like to bring everybody up to date on all kinds of good news that we have around the area and whatever. So, Brian, manager of the Abbey Glen Castle Hotel, maybe you'll bring us up to date on what you've been doing. Well, I've just come back from the Metals Folgerd and Workshops in Killarney, and the mood in the room, by and large, is definitely not negative, but very cautiously optimistic and positive. So while a lot of operators said they were hoping to be up to 20% on this time last year, what they're saying is it's much, much less as the previous year. It hasn't gone up or down either way. And I'm mainly speaking about, I suppose, North American business, which is my job, my bread and butter, the European consumer, like the Germans and the French in particular, are saying, well, Ireland's got very expensive and all the rest. And it has, but I think the rest of the world has got expensive stuff with Ireland. Exactly, yeah. It's all relevant, and that's what you get with the paper. In Ireland, there's a very good quality of product. That's precisely it, yeah. Bed and breakfast sector and a very good hotel sector. And the only thing with the hotel sector in Ireland is that, by and large, if you go to other destinations, if you want to stay in a very, very, very good hotel, it's very, very expensive. And hotels in those countries are either very good and very expensive or they're terrible. Whereas in Ireland, we have an abundance of very good quality three- and four-star hotels, which are affordable to most income earners, and we don't really shout that message out loud enough. I know. And isn't it a fact, Brian, that the three-star and four-star hotels here are definitely on a par with the five-star throughout Europe? Yeah, absolutely. The ratings are different. And the star ratings in Europe are very different to the star ratings in Ireland. They're not really comparable. Well, the star ratings in Ireland are strict, which is probably a good thing, because that's what keeps up the standards. They're accurate. Yeah, exactly. They reflect what they are. Yeah. Now, I saw, and I was looking for it, but I couldn't see where I saw it, that you have joined, you're a member of the Original Irish Hotels. Now, I thought you were already a member of the Original Irish Hotels. Was I wrong? Well, good question. So, Original Irish Hotels used to be Manor House Hotels. Ah, yeah. And it was part of a cooperative called CMV. So there were three brands under the umbrella. There was Coast & Country Hotels, Manor Houses, and Village Inn. And what they do is they amalgamate them all together. Yeah. So in Connemara, there was always, in the Manor House group, there was Balmahinch, Loughliner Lodge, Rock Lake and Rock Cahill, the Rock Glen Hotel, ourselves. And then in the Coast & Country group, you would have had Connemara Sands, the Ardagh, the Carnaby Hotel, and then the Village Inn, Loughlin, Bahons and Rounstone. So they put them all together under one umbrella. And it's been a great success. There's almost 16 hotels in that brand. So it's not viable or feasible for me to get on a plane every month and fly it off to Frankfurt and Berlin and Paris and New York and Boston and spend a happy, dead, bad night overseas. I know. So I buy into this cooperative. I pay them probably $17,000 a year to be in the club, and then they charge us commissions and bookings. But the great thing about that system is that we don't carry the risk of bad debt. So if I do business with a wholesaler, a tour operator overseas, they collect the money, and they have bad debt insurance, and then they pay us. They're bonded. They're bonded, as they call it, a bonded association. Yeah, there you go. It's a cooperative. Yeah, which is brilliant. And it works very well. And like that, they go and represent all of us together as one. Yeah, that's great. So back to your own hotel, Brian. I have seen and I have heard about the upgrading you have done of some of your rooms and your reception and all that, and it looks absolutely beautiful. Do you want to tell the guests what they can expect this year? Well, like that, every year we close the hotel for the most part in January where we use that time to give the staff their annual leave. And while we're closed, and we've almost done it every year, we spend as much money as we can afford on public areas, work that you cannot do when you're open. So this year we did a massive job in the foyer, in the back bar. We did a huge job in the dining room. And then we did 14 bathrooms kind of on the top floor, which was a huge job. And we got it all done within less than three and a half weeks. That was brilliant. So the day we closed, 75 staff walked out of the building, and then 35 walked in to do a different kind of job. Yeah, that was brilliant. I was glad to see the bathroom. But in any hotel, it never bloody ends. You just do it. That's it, yeah. And you start at one end and begin again, you know. Yeah, but I've seen... This week had an army of men in doing painting and decorating and trying to keep up with us. I know, but you're open now. We are open, I'm glad. You're open, good. Yeah, that's good. Once the doors are open, you're happy. I love my hotel. There are lots of Americans, lots of French people, and a lovely atmosphere, you know. So we're very fortunate that Clifton is a destination. And the kind of people who stay in Aberdeen who are not Irish, they see Aberdeen as a service, meaning we provide them with kind of food and accommodation or just bed and breakfast, whatever. And the reason they come and stay with us is to see the beauty of Connemara and Clifton and this part of Galway. They don't see the hotel as a destination. The destination for them is the area, whereas when Irish people come, they tend to see the hotel as the destination and not the area. It's a different kind of business. Yeah, but isn't it a fact... They need to stay up all night kind of staying and entertaining Irish people, whereas the overseas visitor will have dinner early and will be bed by 9 o'clock and will be down for breakfast at 7. He'll be gone by 8, you know. But isn't it a fact that they return, that they do come back for the accommodation or the destination, as you call it. It's destination Connemara, but really if they're not happy with where they're staying, they won't come back. And I know you have a huge return business every year, don't you? Yeah, by and large the return business is mostly Irish people and we're very glad of it and we're very thankful to all those that support us year on, year in, year out. But the overseas visitors, they may come back, but they mightn't come back for another 10 years, but they do come back eventually. Yeah, they do. But you find that they come when they're very young and they come back when they're much older, you know. Yeah, it's an expensive holiday for overseas ones, I suppose. We don't do them every year either, like those kind of destinations. But where in the world can you go now that's not expensive? That's true. I don't see it anywhere where I go, I'd say, as much there as I do here at home. True, and that has been proven again and again by different travellers, which is good to know. And I listen to, you know, Owen Corry and the travel writers and all of that. I must talk to him again actually soon. And they give us, you know, the actual facts, not the one-time complaint by somebody who will say, this is expensive and that's expensive. Like with like, we are not an expensive destination. Isn't that a fact? Yeah, and I think you get value from money, you know. Yeah. And a lot of people aren't stupid too, they know the facts. In our sector, we've been unlucky in that in a very short space of time, the government implemented an awful lot of things, which made it very expensive for us to run the hotel. For example, the bat went up 3%, which is a 15% increase. Yeah, that's terrible. Our corporation tax rates were paid to the Goycombe Council. They've doubled and that began in the last year. The minimum wage has gone up, you know, now we're working with the sick pay payments as well. And these are all costs that have been imposed on us by the government. Nothing got to do, it doesn't matter how good a manager you are, you can go downtown and buy an orange cheaper and little and you can have a super value, but you can't do that with these kind of imposals on you. No, no. And in my view, they just impose way too much too soon together. And only yesterday, I think Morning Ireland was saying that 400 restaurants have closed down in Ireland this year so far. And that says it all. And I'm very aware of myself and I'll be glad that if we didn't have rooms, I wouldn't be in business. It's very difficult to break even in a restaurant now. It costs food, it costs staff and energy and everything that goes with it, you know. Yeah, but isn't it a fact, Brian, and notice short-sighted of a lot of people who gave all of their, you know, all of their accommodation and that to Ukrainians and that, that not alone is that accommodation gone from the B&B sector, from the tourism sector, but the restaurants, you know, can't... The restaurants, the pub, yeah. And the man selling the free ticket to Boston. Yeah, the ancillary businesses are the ones that will really suffer. Isn't it true? Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, we're not going to finish, Brian, on that kind of a doom and gloom. No, no, no. We're happy, so... And I'll tell you what this will do. Anyone that can sustain and hold on there, you know, they'd be better and stronger operators because of it. And we have a great product in Ireland. We have a great product in Clifton and Connemara, which we're very proud of it. And it works and people love it and we're very fortunate to be living where we are. Of course. Brian, as always, it's a pleasure talking to you. Keep up the good work. Good. The best of luck with your season and everything. And I was going to ask you for your special offers, but I don't know if you have any at the moment. Do you? I'm not doing anything that's obvious to bore my mind, but, you know, we're always doing something, and we have a very active website and Instagram page where we put up offers all the time, you know? Well, when you do, come back to us. In the meantime, Brian Hughes, owner of the Abbey Glen Castle Hotel here in Clifton, thank you so much for joining us on the tourism programme. Hi, Carol. That's it for me for this evening, listeners. Thank you indeed to all my guests today, to Maura Fahy, who's the owner of Fahy Travel, and to Donald Healy of Ireland West Airport Knock, to Helena Healy, who is the CEO of B&B Ireland, and to Brian Hughes, the owner of the Abbey Glen Castle Hotel. Just to remind you again, listeners, of the Connemara Marathon, which is on this weekend. Be careful on the roads. Respect the cyclists. There will be many, many, many of them out there on the road. And Linda told everybody to slow down and be careful. Thank you indeed to Linda on the desk. And until I hear from you again, until you hear from me next week, thank you for listening and goodbye. This programme was kindly sponsored by Letterfrack Country Shop, 095 418 50.