53% OF HOTELIERS REPORT INCREASE IN OVERALL BUSINESS LEVELS - Things are looking up for Irish hotels, according to the first Irish Hotels Federation's quarterly industry barometer. In a sector that has taken a massive hit during this recession, 64% of hoteliers say they are optimistic about the viability of their business. 53% have reported an increase in business overall; and most believe the Queen's visit will boost tourism from the UK.
The Irish Hotels Federation chief executive Tim Fenn says the industry has come through a very difficult three years and every building block, such as the visits by the Queen and Barack Obama, can be seen as a positive move back to better times. Mr Fenn says that there was tremendous awareness around the world about the bad news from Ireland and now it is time to get the good news out. He says that Irish hotels are among the most competitive in Western Europe. While he admits that over-capacity remains a problem, he says that Irish hoteliers are working on reinvesting in their staffing levels to improve the quality of their product.
Mr Fenn says there is room for both the budget and high end hotel product in Ireland. He says there was a lot of 'inappropriate' investment in hotels in areas where there was no tradition of tourism and he says these should be moved on to next best use. The IHF's chief executive says that the industry is cautiously optimistic about the start of a turnaround after three tough years.
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MORNING BRIEFS - Small businesses have been warned to be on the lookout for scams. A business survey by ISME says that 67% of companies have been the target of a scam event. Of those, 73% identified overseas offers, 57% business directories and 46% 'phishing' as the main scams perpetrated on their business. ISME says scammers have become particularly sophisticated, with new and intricate ways of ripping-off unsuspecting companies. The organisation warned companies to be particularly wary of any unsolicited correspondence in relation to professional guides and Internet directories, that these scams have become much more numerous in recent weeks.
*** Oil and gas firm Circle Oil says its revenues for 2010 from oil and gas sales increased by 194% last year to $44.39m. It says the increase in sales revenue was down to a higher volume of oil sales - up by 221% - and gas sales - up by 37%. Profit for the year was $16.90m, up 129%.
*** Agribusiness firm Origin Enterprises is buying the fertiliser business of UK firm Carr's Milling. It is buying CM Fertilisers Limited for about £25m sterling.
*** US coffee chain Starbucks closed five of its its Irish coffee shops last year, leading to its pre-tax losses more than doubling from €1.62m to €3.28m. Its revenues fell by 10% to €16.1m. Last year the number of Starbucks outlets in Ireland fell from 23 to 18, the first having opened here in 2005. The stores it closed were all in Dublin - Ranelagh, Dalkey, Tallaght, Dundrum and Swords. It employs 234 staff here. Globally, the company has 16,858 stores, employs 137,000 and last year had worldwide revenues totalling €7.4 billion.
*** On the currency markets the euro is trading at $1.4226 cents and 88.24 pence sterling.
