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Bord Bia predicts €3.6bn Foodservice hit

Irish food service businesses will lose 45pc to 57pc of their total expected sales this year - representing a potential €3.6bn hit to their takings, Bord Bia has predicted. brakfast0520

Its food service 'White Paper' on the harm done by Covid-19 restrictions offers three scenarios for how bad the sector's losses are likely to be in 2020. It also identifies likely changes to the landscape, including spartan menus, the demise of buffets and other self-service options, and surging growth in take-away services.

Bord Bia said food services - including restaurants, pubs, coffee shops and deli counters - totalled €6.3bn in 2019 sales and, before the virus crisis, appeared likely to improve on that performance this year.

But now, the food board calculates that this total turnover will barely reach €3.5bn - down 45pc - and this will be achieved only if the economy reopens positively in the third quarter. This would require a revival of tourism and a September return of students to third-level education.

Hotels seek EU funding

The Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) wants thre Government to urgently seek assistance from the planned €750bn EU Recovery Fund that's being established to help member timfenn states tackle the economic impact of the Covid-19 crisis.

"With 70pc of tourism jobs based outside Dublin, further delays in providing support measures could have devastating implications, particularly for rural Ireland, that may take decades to recover," said the federation's CEO, Tim Fenn.

He insisted that delays in seeking EU funds could put Ireland at a competitive disadvantage.

"One of the lessons learnt from the financial crisis was the requirement to act extremely quickly so that large parts of the economy are not obliterated, with long-term consequences," he said.

ITIC warns on visitor isolation

The head of the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation, Eoghan O'Mara Walsh, says the sector will suffer as a result of the 14-day quarantine requirement. eoghanomw18

Currently, people arriving from abroad in Ireland are required to self-isolate for two weeks.

Howeber ,the two-week quarantine period for people arriving into Ireland from abroad may be lifted for some visitors.

The Irish Times reports the government may remove it for people coming from countries where Covid-19 is controlled.

Mr O'Mara-Walsh says: "75% of the tourism economy is international visitation. So the domestic market is important and that's a given and please god the domestic market will support the Irish tourism industry this summer as the restrictions are lifted.

Fota Resort Ownership Dispute

A dispute concerning ownership of the Fota Island Resort in Co Cork and the Kingsley Hotel in Cork city has come before the High Court. fota0520

The action is by a Chinese businessman, Yuzhu Kang, from Hebei province, who has investments in China and Europe, including Fota Island resort, which he bought in 2013 following a sale concluded on instructions from the National Asset Management Agency.

The Fota Island resort comprises a hotel, golf course, clubhouse and guest lodges.

In an affidavit, Mr Kang said he was given “valuable practical assistance” in that sale by Xiu Xiang Kelly, also from Hebei province, who married an Irishman after coming here and settled in Cork.

Brand Building with Video

Video is a powerful communications tool, but hotels need to have a clear reason for posting videos on social media, a hospitality industry marketing and communications specialist has said.

Film-maker, producer and videographer Greg Manahan told Micheline Corr of The Firm, that some videos featuring animals in hotel lobbies and employees cycling indoors, did not convey a positive brand image for the hotels that posted them.

He was this week’s guest on The Firm Optimist discussion series.

‘Before a hotel posts a video, management need to have a mission objective for doing so. It must reinforce the core brand message of how the customer views the hotel’, he said.

Hotels, he said, are complex products from a brand perspective and hoteliers need to be careful about the messages they convey’.

Covid 19, he said, will change how consumers see hotels, with brand perceptions in the future likely to put more emphasis on safety and hygiene’.

‘But guests will also want a great hotel experience and the challenge for hoteliers is to balance these attributes in their offering’.

The local environment is also a key to the brand proposition of many hotels’, he said. ‘Hotels need to work with their local community, their town, village or high street to offer a complete experience- just as Killarney and Westport have done so successfully’.

He urged participants in Zoom meetings to learn the basics of good presentation, including camera position, (focus on the eyes’), lighting (‘in front of the participant and behind the camera’) and sound (‘buy a microphone’)

His three pieces of advice to hospitality businesses are to offer reassurance to customers and staff that they will be safe and comfortable, offer high speed broadband and commission high quality video which uses a story to convey the new brand proposition.

Watch the full interview on: https://youtu.be/emq6ni9IXSg