I am pleased to be here for the official opening of the Hilton Dublin Airport Hotel.
At the outset, I would like to congratulate you all – management and staff – for the impact you have already made on the local community of North Dublin. Under your Area General Manager, Friedrich Schaefer, and your General Manager, Daniel Webster, I know that you have had considerable success since your opening earlier in the summer.
My congratulations also go to Pat Veale and the Walls Group on creating a whole new neighbourhood here on the Malahide Road. I know that Pat has led the company in this most recent strategic development, the Northern Cross town centre. The Hilton hotel represents just one part of a complex that will include apartments, retail units, a business park and a modern crèche.
In essence, you are creating a self-contained living and working space on the Malahide Road that will cater for a wide range of needs in the local area.
It goes without saying that you have chosen an excellent location for this development. Indeed, it occupies one of the most prominent and important positions in Dublin City Council’s proposed new urban redevelopment scheme. It is close to the airport, the International Financial Services Centre and the Airside retail and business park and it is also well served by road.
The Hilton Dublin Airport hotel is an ideal amenity for business visitors, tourists and the local community alike. It has all of the modern facilities and fitness, sporting and leisure amenities that discerning visitors now expect from a good hotel. As such, it will enhance the attraction of Dublin as a venue for business tourism.
This business tourism sector represents a global market worth some
€40 billion last year. At present, Ireland has a very small but valuable share of about 1% of the market. This is worth some €400 million to our economy, earned from over 100,000 people visiting Ireland for conferences and a further 25,000 for incentive travel. It is a sector that has considerable capacity for growth.
As is clear today, we have facilities of the right quality, backed up by the professional expertise to enable us to climb higher in the league table of preferred business travel destinations. Fáilte Ireland are paying special attention to this sector and, in consultation with the industry, have set up a Business Tourism Forum to source, identify and deliver new customers in this area.
It is encouraging to see how quickly this Hotel has put in place the foundations of excellence that are consistent with the other hotels operated by Hilton International. I know that you are currently working on the first phase of the Fáilte Ireland Optimus programme. This is a new, total support framework that builds upon the foundations of the Ireland’s Best programme, which has run successfully for some years. Optimus helps businesses to achieve excellence in all aspects of their operation, with standards based on those of the best hotels in Europe.
The favourable reports given by so many of the 6.5 million overseas visitors to Ireland last year is in no small measure due to the excellence in training, service, catering and leisure facilities that have been the focus of our hotels.
The people who work in tourism are an intrinsic part of the Irish tourism product and it is they who ultimately determine the quality of each customer's experience. I am sure that with the appropriate management and development of the versatile workforce available in North Dublin, alongside your participation in Optimus, you will deliver a quality experience, every time.
In fact, I am delighted that you have already created 150 jobs in this area, tapping into a huge local asset. Your alignment with the Northside Partnership, the local schools and Fáilte Ireland in further developing employment opportunities, as well as providing the necessary educational qualifications, has served you well so far. I have no doubt it will continue to do so into the future.
I know that you are working to become a major community partner here and that you are developing your corporate social responsibility programme, in line with the policies of Hilton International worldwide. Already your staff have raised welcome funds for the residents of St. Rosalie’s home by a sponsored fun walk from here to Malahide. This represents the first step in a developing programme that I look forward to seeing rolled out in the years ahead.
As you are all aware, these are challenging times for the hotel industry. However, in the face of these challenges the sector has shown courage and resilience. It has demonstrated confidence in a prosperous future for the Irish hotel market by providing many new hotels and by renovating older, more familiar establishments. This development of the fifth Hilton in Ireland, by an international group that employs more than 70,000 staff in 78 countries, is particularly welcome today.
I wish you every success for the future.
Thank you.
ENDS