Fewer international visitors sees hotels business look closer to home

As family-owned luxury hotel collection Hastings Hotels sets about reopening its properties over the next couple of months, MD Howard Hastings is hoping to forge a lasting relationship with the millions of “local” holidaymakers on his doorstep.

When the doors of Howard Hastings’ seven luxury properties across Northern Ireland all closed at the start of the lockdown, he first set about making sure that his suppliers were paid up – something reaping dividends today thanks to these same suppliers now offering extended credit terms as he re-opens – and then weighed up his options.

He wasn’t exactly overburdened with choices – but one idea had so much potential that it couldn’t be ignored. If arrivals from overseas were destined to plummet this year, why not try and entice people from Northern Ireland and, perhaps more importantly, the Republic of Ireland instead?

“Much like in mainland Great Britain, people in the Republic of Ireland would largely take foreign holidays in the summer,” said Howard, “but the impact of the pandemic and the lack of international flights means that many will be holidaying at home this year. The estimate is that of the four and a half million people who live in the Republic of Ireland, two and a half of them have never overnighted in Northern Ireland. So alongside the domestic market, that’s the market we want to go for.”

A helping hand from the chancellor

Historically, hotels in Northern Ireland have operated at a slight disadvantage when compared to those in the Republic of Ireland, where VAT rates are much lower. That changes this summer thanks to the new UK-wide five per cent rate that is being applied across the hospitality sector – something that Howard thinks will be reflected in more competitive prices. “With this new rate,” he added, “that barrier to competitiveness has been removed.”

Working with Tourism Northern Ireland, whose new “Embrace a Giant Spirit” campaign was conceived earlier in the year and is now being rolled out, Howard is keen to help spread the message across the whole of the Emerald Isle that Northern Ireland is a great place to visit. “We’ve always known that the Republic of Ireland market was there, but I think the pandemic has forced everyone to change their holiday plans and, hopefully, Northern Ireland is somewhere they can easily get to this year,” he said.

In fact, promoting a region to its near-neighbours is certainly something that other local tourist boards should consider post-pandemic, Howard feels, especially when many of the companies in their sector would struggle to fund marketing campaigns of their own right now.

As to whether Tourism Northern Ireland and their own efforts will “save” the year for the hotel group, the hotelier admits this seems unlikely – especially when, he pointed out, a normal year sees more than 30m arrivals at Dublin airport alone (Belfast has around six million). But it has certainly given his teams something to focus on.

Long-term benefits

While 2020 may ultimately be written off as a commercial annus horribilis for the hotel group, the marketing activity it has inspired could turn out to have long-lasting benefits. The good people of the Republic of Ireland, Howard hopes, may come back.

“I’d like to think it’s a market that’s easier to attract for repeat visits,” he said. “A lot of the people that we might normally get on coach holidays who might be coming from the United States, for example, they’ll leave and they will have ‘done’ Ireland. They’ll have ticked that box and they’re not necessarily going to come back, but for the closer-to-home markets, you hope that you can get people to say, ‘I really enjoyed it and there’s so much more to see and do’. And it’s very handy for them to come and visit again.”

It goes deeper still – Hastings thinks this summer may present something of an opportunity for north and south to soothe any lingering historic tensions. “The reasons are many and varied as to why we haven’t enjoyed a greater footfall from the Republic of Ireland in the past,” he commented, “and one, I think, is that it goes back to The Troubles, when people from the south didn’t necessarily come north. In many ways it’s a tourism ambition to get more of them up north now, but I think it’s a societal ambition as well – that we are so far beyond the conflict, and the new generation coming up have heard less and less of that and are more excited about some of the things that are going on in contemporary Northern Ireland.”

He talks of the music, the food, and Northern Ireland’s many famous places of interest – such as the World Heritage-listed Giant’s Causeway. “Every region has its own attractions,” he added, “but I think Northern Ireland is getting better at showcasing them now.”