Kerry Tourism Campaign Launched

Tourism Minister Mary Hanafin has launched a new €200m advertising campaign for Kerry which has been funded by Fáilte Ireland and local tourism interests.



The campaign features outdoor billboards and bus shelter advertising with a strong focus on Dublin, Cork and Limerick, broadcast advertising on national and regional radio and print advertising in national, Belfast, Cork and Limerick newspapers, plus a dedicated Kerry Tourism supplement in The Irish Times.

All communications direct potential customers to a specifically designed Kerry campaign on www.discoverireland.com/kerry.

Revamp for Jurys Inns

Jurys Inns is continuing its extensive refurbishment programme, investing a further €9m upgrading its hotels. The move follows the €4.6m upgrade of Jurys Inns Christchurch and Custom House Quay hotels, as well as significant refurbs in Cork and Galway.

The 2010 programme will see the group complete the refurbishment of Jurys Inn Custom House Quay, including the public areas, and also complete the €1m revamp of the Belfast property. Major refurbs are also underway in older hotels in the GB portfolio, including Manchester, Islington and Edinburgh.

The extensive renovations come as the group rolls out a new brand proposition, 'Exceptional Everyday City Hotels'.

'The new brand positioning is firmly in tune with our DNA of offering great customer service, great locations and a great hotel experience to our guests. Our ambition is to become the mid-market leader in the UK and Ireland hotel markets by putting hospitality at the heart of the hotel industry, which we frankly believe many of our competitors are failing to do," says Joe Quinn, chief operating officer with the group.

Food poisoning linked to duck eggs

Six cases of food poisoning relating to duck eggs have been confirmed in Ireland in recent months.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland said it was investigating an ongoing outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium DT8 linked to the consumption of duck eggs.

It said it was seeking further information in relation to the potential source of the eggs.
The food-poisoning danger is removed by thorough cooking and by preventing cross-contamination between any raw egg and ready-to-eat foods.

The authority advised consumers to only consume duck eggs that have been thoroughly cooked and to cease using raw duck eggs in any dishes that will not be cooked prior to eating.
It also recommended good hygiene practices, such as washing hands and preparation surfaces after handling or using duck eggs.

Symptoms of Salmonella Typhimurium DT8 infection can include diarrhoea, stomach cramps, vomiting and fever.

The authority said anyone who may have such symptoms and suspect it may be the result of duck eggs should contact their doctor for advice.

“The FSAI is working closely with the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Health Service Executive; and various local authorities to control this outbreak and to prevent further cases,” a statement said

NEW ROUTES FOR SHANNON OPEN MARKET OF 7 MILLION

The Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) today welcomed the extension of Aer Lingus Regional’s services into Shannon as an important strategic boost to the region’s tourism industry.

The new services will provide more direct access to in excess of 7 million people across key population centres in the UK, which is Ireland’s largest tourism market for overseas visitors.



In welcoming the announcement by Aer Lingus Regional, Michael Vaughan, Chairman, IHF Shannon Branch said, “This is a significant opportunity to increase the profile of Ireland and, in particular, the Shannon and Western regions as a vibrant holiday destination. With a total market of over 62 million people on our doorstep, the UK is Ireland’s largest source of overseas visitors. As such direct access to key urban centres of population is critical to the development of our tourism offering.”

Mr Vaughan welcomes the airport board's efforts to bring sustainable long term air services to the region and is optimistic that the new services will facilitate the continued expansion of the British tourism market both nationally and directly into the region. Operated by Aer Lingus Regional – a franchise of Aer Arann and Aer Lingus, the services will operate from July with flights to and from Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Bristol.

“This announcement represents massive potential to grow tourism to the West region. We look forward to working with the Regional Tourism Development Board in the West to maximise this impact,” concludes Mr Vaughan.

Killeshin Hotel in Receivership

The four-star 87 bedroom Killeshin Hotel, where developer Bernard McNamara is a major investor, has been put into receivership at the request of Anglo Irish Bank, according to a report in the 'Irish Independent'.

The hotel has been struggling financially for some time, although receiver Grant Thornton intends to keep it open.



According to the hotel's website, the property is owned by Killeshin Properties Limited. The accounts for that company covering 2008 show McNamara as a 50pc shareholder, along with two other directors, Neil O'Carroll and Noel Conolin, who hold smaller stakes.

Grant Thornton said an insolvency practitioner Gearoid Costelloe and his team will now evaluate the needs of the business.

"It was the receiver's intention to restructure the hotel and put it on a sound financial and commercial footing," said a spokesman. "The receiver believed the hotel could be brought to a position where it could break even and yield an operating profit. It was an excellent and very well-maintained facility," he added.

Gillian Bowlers launches clickandgo.com

Former Failte Ireland chairman, Budget Travel founder and Irish Life & Permanent chairperson Gillian Bowler has launched a new travel company for the Irish market.

ClickandGo.com, is offering a range of sun holidays in destinations such as Spain, Portugal, France, the Canaries and Madeira. It is claiming to offer lower prices than its competitors.


A statement said the new company would offer holidaymakers the chance to buy all or part of their package from it, while buying parts of the package, such as flights , directly if they wish. Its packages will be based around scheduled, rather than charter, flights.

Others involved in ClickandGo.com include Ms Bowler's husband and former Budget Travel director Harry Sydner, Bob Haugh, chairman of The Travel Department and Eugene Corcoran, former managing director of Budget Travel. Paul Hackett, Budget's former head of marketing, will be the new company's chief executive.

Ms Bowler said the internet and the rise of self-packaged holidays had changed the face of the travel business forever. 'Traditional travel companies are still in denial but we want to set up a business which embraces the internet and which makes it work for us and our customers,' she said.

She added that she wanted to challenge TUI and Thomas Cook, who now control about 85% of the package holiday market in Ireland. Ms Bowler is aiming to cater for 10,000 holidaymakers this year

Safefood highlights food hygiene risks in the home at this year’s Balmoral Show

Sarah Hennessy and Andrew Castles from safefood shine a light on food hygiene risks in the home at this year’s Balmoral Show.

60% of sinks and drainers contain raw meat bacteria

54% of consumers do not thoroughly wash their chopping board after preparing raw meat

safefood today reminded consumers to keep food safety on the menu by highlighting poor food hygiene practices common in the home. A recent study revealed that raw meat bacteria was detected on 60% of sinks and drainers, on 36.7% of taps and on 43.3% of kitchen worktops while consumers were preparing a meal.

As the Balmoral Show begins, safefood is urging consumers to ensure that they wash their hands thoroughly after touching raw meat and poultry, handling pets or animals, and before preparing foods. It is also of vital importance that all kitchen utensils, including chopping boards and knives are properly cleaned after coming into contact with raw meat and poultry to avoid additional risks of cross contamination in the kitchen.

Dr. Gary Kearney, Director Food Science, safefood added: “Our recent research has highlighted how easy it is for cross contamination to take place in a kitchen environment. Many consumers wash raw meat and poultry under the tap, but this is inadvisable as it can spread germs from the raw food nearly 3 feet from the sink through the splashes this creates.

We want to strongly advise consumers about the importance of preventing cross contamination in the kitchen, by suggesting easy steps to avoid the spread of bacteria such as E. coli and Campylobacter which can cause food poisoning.

The message is simple: always wash hands in warm, soapy water after handling raw meat or chicken; always wash utensils such as knives and chopping boards thoroughly after use with raw meat and chicken and before reuse with ready to eat foods such as salads; always cook chicken and minced meat thoroughly until piping hot all the way through with no pink meat remaining and the juices running clear.

With 94% of consumers in Northern Ireland recognising the importance of avoiding the spread of bacteria from raw food to kitchen surfaces and utensils, safefood is urging consumers to visit its interactive stand at this year’s Balmoral Show to find out more. The stand offers consumers the chance to pop along with their families to learn “first hand” about food safety risks, witness how cross contamination can easily occur in a demonstration kitchen and learn about how these risks can be avoided. The interactive safefood stand will be at the King’s Hall in Belfast from 12th-14th May.

Tax on chewing gum sought in Ireland

Chewing gum manufacturers should switch to biodegradable alternatives or be subject to a levy in the interim in order to tackle the costly issue of littered chewing gum, claims a consortium of Irish businesses.

Campaign group Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) claims that about 20 per cent of the 700 million pieces of gum sold annually in Ireland are dropped on the streets by consumers


It also claims that chewing gum makers such as Wrigley should bear the brunt of cleaning up the streets through a tax on gum, a move it said could also bolster the tourist industry.

IBAL, at the launch of its 9th Anti Litter League this week, also called on the Irish government to withdraw support for the industry’s anti-gum-litter campaigns.

Hike in gum litter

A spokesperson for IBAL told ConfectioneryNews.com that, in order to collate data on the litter related to products such as chewing gum and fast food, it commissions environmental group, An Taisce, to review 600 sites throughout Ireland several times a year.

“This research has shown that there has been a significant increase in the presence of gum in the past 12 to 18 months and it indicates that the government backed industry funded campaigns aimed at creating behavioural change in consumers are not realistic. As a business group, we are essentially opposed to further levies on manufacturers but taxation is the one option that could focus the minds of the major chewing gum producers to move from conventional gums towards biodegradable forms,” he said.

Ministerial backing

According to the Irish Times, the minister for the environment, John Gormley, who attended the IBAL launch, has not ruled out the implementation of a levy on packets of gum but that he was open to discussing the matter with gum makers.

The article also reported the minister as stating that he was concerned at levels of gum litter and that he was not renewing the agreement with the sector in relation to an anti-gum education campaign.

Gormley also said that while research into a viable biodegradable form of chewing gum was still on-going, his preference would be for an approach involving an industry funded gum clean-up programme, states the Irish Times.

Biodegradable version

Meanwhile, last year saw a consortium of Mexican co-operatives use an organic gum base as the key natural ingredient for a new biodegradable gum, which entered UK retail outlets in 2009. According to the Mexican co-operatives, which include around 2,000 farmers, one of the compositional advantages of its Chicza Rainforest gum is biodegradability.

"Once disposed of, its all-natural components will become dust within weeks," they claim.
Produced by Consorcio Chiclero, the latex gum used in the formulation is extracted from the rainforest's chicozapote tree that can live and produce gum for 300 years.

"The natural gum base is made by boiling until sticky the latex from the tree sustainably. These trees will not yield latex if planted outside their natural environment," said the co-operative.

FAIR TRADE HOTELS

SIPTU has called on consumers to support hotels which give their staff decent pay and conditions.


The union says 45 hotels across Ireland which recognise unions have signed up to a new 'fair hotels' scheme.
Unions are urging their members to use these hotels for family holidays, conferences and meetings.


SIPTU believes the scheme will benefit hotel employees, fair employers, and members of the public.

The union has set up a website - www.fairhotels.ie - where consumers can find out which hotels have signed up to the scheme.


Some may also offer discounts for clients booking under the scheme.
The campaign is based on the principle that hotels that treat staff fairly should be supported by consumers who care about workers rights.

SIPTU says it hopes to harness the purchasing power of up to 850,000 workers in Ireland, as well as 50 Irish trade unions and 32 non-governmental organisations.
The campaign will also target up to 12m union members in 120 other countries where trade union federations have endorsed the campaign.
It is hoped the campaign will drum up business for hotels, some of whom have been badly hit by the recession.

Chef allegedly stashed wife in freezer for three years

For over three years a UK chef stashed the body of his South African wife after beating her to death with a griddle pan, a British court heard recently.

The court heard yesterday how 34-year old Peter Wallner, originally from Bavaria, deep froze his spouse Melanie, a South African expatriate, after allegedly killing her.

He also told the judge that 24 hours after committing the murder, he wined and dined his secret love before having sex with her right on the murder scene: the bed.

To mask what he had done, Wallner told family and friends that his spouse died suddenly from a brain aneurysm. At a memorial service, which was attended by 50 mourners, he filled cemetery urn with the ash from the barbecue. This urn has been buried on Melanie;s family farm in South Africa.


In the meantime, the woman who died in 2006 was deep frozen. The truth finally came out three years later when Wallner arranged to sell the freezer for £25 and dumped the corpse in a wheelie bin.

First, dustmen refused to take the bin because it was too heavy and then a neighbour spotted a protruding ankle.

Wallner married his wife, who moved to the UK from South Africa in 1995, in 2001. Four years later he landed a job as head chef at the four star Woodlands Park Hotel in Cobham where he is said to have developed an infatuation with Emma Harrison, the hotel's wedding planner.

"It appears the defendant had been seeing Emma behind his wife's back in the months proceeding her death," Miss Cheema told the court. "He had told Emma that he was separated from his wife and she lived in London."