Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State. I have been in his part of the world a lot recently and it is impressive. I was very impressed by the figures he outlined to the House, particularly the figure of 200,000 jobs dependent on the tourism industry. If the level of expenditure is €4 billion, it suggests 11% of the people are employed in the industry. I will not go through the figures he mentioned but I was pleased to hear about the discounted rail travel aspect.

I was chairman of the St. Patrick's festival committee for a number of years. I note that Tourism Ireland is to invest €26 million in the first half of the year. A person from Japan said to me that if they had a brand like St. Patrick's Day, they would use it effectively. The person concerned was criticising the way in which we had used it. I agree with Senator Mooney in what he said about using the St. Patrick's Day festivities for various purposes.

I grew up in the hotel business or, better still, the holiday camp business. My father ran Red Island Holiday Camp in Sherries, County Dublin, which he built just after the end of the Second World War. It had 250 bedrooms and catered for 500 guests. There was one important message I learned from that business. The camp was run by my father on the basis that practically all of the guests would come from the north of England from places such as Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham who would travel by boat or aeroplane and pay on the day of arrival. Everything was included in holiday price. It was a very interesting way to do business. My father's view was that one should not bring any spare money. I call it the Boomerang principle whereby everything one does is aimed at getting the customer to come back. The objective was not to get as much money as possible from the customer because if one sought to do this, one would be in breach of the contract made with the customer whereby travel, accommodation, food and entertainment was included. In later years I have been on holiday with our children to Club Med where the same principle applies - everything is included, including wine. One does not spend money on anything other than spirits. The reason I mention this is that I believe the answer is in our own hands. It is up to hoteliers and everybody involved in the tourism business to recognise that if we succeed, it will be because people will come and enjoy their visit and want to come back again. That lies in our own hands and we can do it in so many ways.

I was speaking the other day to a person who had tried to book into Kelly's Hotel in Rosslare but it was booked out, even at this time of year. The hotel has a history of doing things well and I am sure there are others like it. It caters for families, those interested in good food and golfers and appears to do everything well. I take it as an example. When I visited another part of Ireland, I could not get over the bad service offered. In one hotel, as I was checking in, a person asked the receptionist, "Is that a VIP?" She replied, "No, it is not." In other words, I would not receive the level of attention that would be given. I was very disappointed. I walked into another establishment and the owner and an assistant were talking to each other. There were a number of tourists present. As we walked between them, they never even noticed us. There was no eye contact and no link. How could they hope to get people to come back?

Some years ago I spoke at a conference in America. After my wife and I had pulled up at the hotel in southern California, the commissioner opened the door and said: "Mr. Quinn, you are very welcome." I was very impressed. As we chatted, he asked if I had been to the hotel before and I replied that I had not. He said he would look after my bags and told me to proceed to the reception desk. He asked if I had come a long way. I said I had come from Ireland and he asked how long it had taken me to get there. I said it had taken ten or 12 hours. As I approached the reception desk, the receptionist looked up and asked: "How are you, Mr. Quinn? You are very welcome. You must be exhausted. You have come all the way from Dublin which is about ten or 12 hours away." I was so impressed that I went down the following day to watch as the next guests arrived. As the taxi pulled up, the boot opened, the doorman ran behind, saw the name on the case and asked: "How are you, Mr. Buckley? You are very welcome. You have been with us before." He said he had been there the previous year and had played a great round of golf, better than he had had ever played before but which he would beat this time. The doorman said, "Well, Mr. Buckley, you know the way; head over to the reception desk." Mr. Buckley headed over and received the same welcome I had received. The receptionist said: "How are you Mr. Buckley? You are welcome back. You are the guy who shot 72 last year." He was very pleased. I was watching the doorman who had a microphone in the lapel of his jacket and was whispering into it. I mention this because they went to some pains to make sure they got it right. These are the things we can do.