Leading group invests £12m

Northern Ireland's largest hotel group, Hastings Hotels, is spending £12m on its six properties this year. Its flagship property, the Europa, recently opened a new 56-bed executive bedroom wing making it the largest hotel in the North and the third largest in Ireland.

At £100,000 each, the 56 new bedrooms in the Europa represent a considerable investment in the local market. The bedrooms are finished with luxury furnishings, dedicated work-desks, ISDN lines, electronic safes and marble-finished bathrooms.

Hotels in the group include the Culloden, Stormont, Slieve Donard, Everglades and Ballygally Castle. Hasting Hotels has operated in Northern Ireland for 40 years and is now seeing the "peace dividend" pay off.

Howard Hastings, managing director of the group, said "this level of investment is a major vote of confidence in the local market. The investment in the Europa is part of the group's £12m commitment over the next year to bring the local and overseas market bigger and better facilities."

Plans for the group's five other hotels include adding new meeting rooms and nine luxury bedrooms to the North's only five-star hotel, the Culloden. The Stormont has been refurbished and acquired a 30-foot high glass front. A 500-capacity ballroom and conference facility is being built at present. The Everglades in Derry has also been totally refurbished. The Slieve Donard in Newcastle is taking shape as the Gleneagles of Northern Ireland and Ballygally Castle Hotel in Antrim will have 20 new bedrooms in the New Year.

The Hastings Hotel group is also committed to local suppliers with as much of the furnishings, carpeting, artwork and contracting as possible sourced from local firms.

Investment in the Merrion Hotel in Dublin, the most expensive hotel ever opened in Ireland, has proved beneficial to the group. Mr Hastings said "its value to us has been the education it has given us as to what visitors are looking for, both in terms of infrastructure, and service."

The Hastings Group has recently entered into a joint marketing alliance with De Vere Hotels plc in the UK. Both groups have similar properties in their portfolios and strong conference business. The alliance aims to establish a stronger presence in the UK market for the Northern Ireland properties.