Number Plates Promoting Local Businesses
Itâs 9.30 in the morning, and a few businessmen are enjoying low-key breakfast meetings in the lounge of the Merrion Hotel in Dublin.
But the mood changes when Howard Hastings sweeps into the room. Hastings is no celebrity and most people wouldnât recognise him, but the assembled diners suspend their breakfasts to greet the Northerner and make their introductions. Hastings is managing director of Hastings Hotels, which has six high-end properties in the North and has owned a 50 per cent share in the Merrion Hotel since 1997. He has also recently become chairman of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board.
The family-owned group is made up of the Europa and Stormont hotels in Belfast, the Culloden Estate at Cultra, the Slieve Donard in Newcastle, Ballygally Castle on the Antrim coast, and the Everglades in Derry. The group had turnover of stg£40 million last year and is ploughing much of its profits back into large-scale refurbishment of the hotels.
The Slieve Donard, for example, has just undergone a stg£15 million refurbishment and extension. The Merrion operates separately from the group, but it holds a special place for Hastings, whose family have been in the business for more than 40 years.
ââWe had been looking for a foothold in Dublin for a while and wouldnât have had the confidence to build a hotel here on our own,â he said. ââThere were too many industry insiders and the best deals never really came to light, so weâre very lucky and delighted to have the Merrion, which is marketed as a standalone brand.
ââBeing associated with the Merrion opened the doors for us to southern-based tourist operators who would never have considered venturing North at the time. Most were indifferent to us and had a âwho are you anyway?â attitude until we mentioned the Merrion.â
Given the poor economic circumstances north and south of the border, it would be understandable if Hastings was downbeat. The tourism industry is suffering, and some hospitality businesses have cut prices back to 2002 levels. Spend an hour in Hastingsâ company, however, and itâs clear that he prefers to look on the bright side.
ââIâve met Tourism Ireland and key industry figures over the past few days as chairman of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board,â he said. ââThere is definitely a sense that the sector is undergoing more difficulties than it has done for a long time.
ââBut weâve seen worse. In the past, there have been other things that were equally, if not more, difficult for our industry. Our current shortfall in numbers is economically driven. If you have invested in bricks and mortar, like a hotel or tourist attraction, youâve made a long-term investment that is prone to cyclical ups and downs that you have to ride out.
ââEveryone in the business has had stressful moments. But people are resilient and they come through hard times,â said Hastings, who employs about 940 people.
As a business owner in the North, Hastings has seen his share of hard times.
ââWe remember when there was internment in Northern Ireland. They were not joyous days for tourism,â he said. ââLet me tell you, when Kate Adie checks in to one of your hotels, itâs not a good sign for occupancy.â The Europa Hotel was damaged by bombs 33 times between 1972 and 1994 and became known as âthe most bombed hotel in Europeâ.
It joined the Hastings portfolio in 1993, and the group pumped stg£10 million into a refurbishment. Today it is one of Belfastâs flagship hotels and has hosted visiting dignitaries including Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Hastings took over the day-today running of the business from his father, Dr Billy Hastings, about 20 years ago. He had studied law in Nottingham, qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG in London, and worked with Volvo in England before coming home.
ââI was never pressured to join the business,â said Hastings. ââIt was never pre-ordained. Nor do I think I necessarily wanted to pursue either law or accountancy as a career. When my father underwent bypass surgery around 1990, he said:
âHoward, if ever youâve been thinking of coming home, now is a good time to think about it a bit harderâ.â It wasnât an easy decision for Hastings, who was married and settled in England.
ââMy wife is English and was a little afraid of moving to a Northern Ireland that was not at peace,â he said. ââAbout a week before the 2004 ceasefire, we had bomb attacks on a hotel in Belfast and one in Strabane on two consecutive nights. It was a low point.â Hastingsâ father had been involved in the pub trade and bought into his first hotel in 1968.
ââBeddemand was not great at the time and success wasnât guaranteed, but he stumbled into good fortune in that the first hotel he invested in was the Stormont Hotel,â said Hastings. ââNone of the pubs in the area could get an alcohol licence because of their proximity to parliament. Because the hotel had ten bedrooms, it was the only building in the area that was granted a licence. The Stormont now has 105 bedrooms.â
The group is a true family business, with Hastingsâs three sisters, Julie Maguire, Allyson Hastings and Aileen Martin, all involved in its operations. Julie is marketing executive, Allyson is events director and Aileen, who is the youngest, handles sales.
ââWe all have very different personalities and we all get on very well... probably because weâre very busy,â said Hastings. ââMy dad takes enormous pleasure in having all four of his children in the business. I often think the one who suffers is my mum, Joy, as we see dad almost every day and get the news from home before we see her.â
The family have followed their fatherâs lead in another way - like him, each has a personalised car number plate ending in 1066, making reference to the Battle of Hastings.
ââMy father personalised his car number plate as BIL 1066,â said Hastings. ââJulie picked up the ball and ran with it.â The family membersâ mobile phone numbers all end in 1066 as well, as does each of the hotel phone numbers.
However, Hastings said there was no guarantee the business would continue another generation in the family. ââJust as there has never been pressure on me or my sisters to join the business, we would be mindful not to pressure our children either,â he said.
ââI want my kids to find what they love doing and choose that as a career. If itâs hotels, thatâs great; if not, thatâs fine too. Iâm keen to let them explore and find out where their interests lie.â
While the hotel sector in general is struggling, Hastings maintains that the industry in the North is actually benefiting from some of the economic problems in the Republic.
ââTraders in the Republic have seen a decline in the domestic leisure market. Where weâve seen a shortfall in the corporate and conference market in the North, it has been filled with weekend leisure visitors from the South, thanks to the currency exposure,â he said.
ââA series of severe budgets in the Republic will take more money out of household incomes. It remains to be seen whether or not that diminishes peopleâs appetite to take leisure weekends. In the same vein, the corporate Republic is having a really tough time. The question is, will they take advantage of the currency difference and come up North?â
Hastings said that the biggest challenge facing the tourist board in the North was perception.
ââWeâre getting regular visitors coming north to go shopping. It doesnât take a significant number of them to stay over and discover the attractions on offer to make up a substantial market. We want them to explore more of the province,â he said.
ââWhen the Point [in Dublin] closed for refurbishment before reopening as the O2,we found a substantial number of people coming over the border to events. For example, 20 per cent of tickets sold for Take That in the Odyssey Arena were sold to.ie addresses.â
Hastings said that Belfast had a number of venues and attractions, including the Waterfront Hall, the newly-refurbished Ulster Hall and Belfast City Hall, which is reopening this year.
ââThe Ulster Museum will be open in October and has a fine collection of Irish art. The Lyric Theatre is also being rebuilt,â he said.
ââThereâs been huge investment in Northern Ireland over the past few years. Belfast looks like itâs been through the car wash and had a great facelift.
ââWeâre also pushing hard to have the Titanic Visitors Centre completed in time for the centenary in 2012.That attraction will benefit the island as a whole, as visitors will likely visit the rest of the country too, so we have a lot of support from Tourism Ireland,â he said. Hastings said that politicians in the North had identified the economy as the number one priority and recognised that tourism could be a key driver of that.
ââWe are a relatively high-cost base for manufacturing on both sides of the border, so weâre never going to be the manufacturing hub of the world. But we have unspoilt natural attractions that no one else has to offer and we must take advantage of that. The more mature the British government becomes in balancing the books, the more it will realise that foreign earnings from tourists will prove amore long-term income stream.â
