_1.jpg?width=420&height=191&ext=.jpg "Jenny De Saulles, Fáilte Ireland’s Director of Sector Development - Opening Statement")
Thank you Paul, as Paul called out there are 5 key supply side challenges facing tourism this year.
All of you have seen operational costs increase in 2022 and we know that core tourism and hospitality input costs are often among the highest in Europe, electricity prices are above average, and Ireland has the second highest cost of credit. And recent legislative changes will increase cost of labour.
The viability of long-standing business models are being called into question as businesses struggle to maintain sustainable margins due to margin pressure from rising costs and a reduced ability to pass on increases. To support businesses to adapt their business models Fáilte Ireland will be rolling out a program to help you drive operational change and to minimise costs positively impacting the bottom line
We are seeing a shortage of accommodation due to support of the humanitarian crisis. 25% of tourism accommodation including Dublin is currently contracted, that’s 30% outside of Dublin.
And the bigger challenge is the spread, as you can see from the map certain key tourism destinations like Donegal have lost over 50% of their accommodation, Clare, Sligo and Kerry have lost between 35 and 39%. And this is having a detrimental impact on the wider tourism economy
We and the Dept of Tourism are meeting biweekly with the dept of Children ensuring the impact on tourism is understood and expressing an urgent need for a more balanced approach to the crisis. And we are supporting our department on developing proposals for government consideration on how impacted non accommodation businesses could be supported.
This summer the Car Hire fleet will be 60% of its size in 2019 and the ability of the sector to re-fleet is extremely challenged.
A hire car is key to how one-third of overseas tourists engaged with Ireland; with car hire availability and price being researched early in the consumer decision journey. Any lack of availability or high pricing has a negative impact on likelihood to visit Ireland and is damaging for the country’s reputation as a good value destination
Fáilte Ireland have completed and submitted analysis to support a change in the VAT / VRT issue which would have a significant impact on the sectors ability to refleet. And we have been working with the industry in exploring creative options to increase supply.
Pre-COVID-19, Ireland was seen as a relatively high cost, but competitive, destination, evident by the arrival of almost 10m overseas tourists. As we enter financially tighter times, value perceptions matter more. Experience shows that should Irish tourism get a reputation for poor value, it will be very difficult to reverse.
A number of supports will be available to help you deliver VFM including workshops on Pricing Strategy and Experience Development as well as Commercial Management Programmes
The staffing situation is much improved on 2022, but the labour market remains very tight particularly as peak season. Better pay, enhanced terms and conditions and an improved workplace environment have improved the perception of tourism sector for those working within in it, but there is still much to do to change perceptions of those outside the sector.
Of all the operating challenges listed, this is the one that is most within your control. And in 2023 we have an extensive Tourism Careers plan to support you with your staffing challenges. Today I want to talk to you about 2 key initiatives within this plan.
The first is our Excellent Employer Programme
The Programme launched in 2022 and remains open to any tourism business to register. To date over 170 businesses have registered and participated in the Programme.
2,100 People Managers and Team Leads from these participating businesses are completing our bespoke Fundamentals of People Management training, upskilling them on core skills such as Performance Management, Team Development and Managing High Performing Teams.
In addition, 20,000 employees in these businesses have undergone an Employee Survey, giving them the opportunity to highlight what they feel is working well in the business from their perspective, and the areas where they feel there are opportunities to further develop.
These businesses are now implementing actions identified in their survey to further enhance their employee experience.
In 2023 we will roll out the Excellent Employer Program certification for businesses who have completed their employee survey and the required People Management learning. Certification is based on results coming out of employee surveys, and provides opportunities to showcase involvement in the program in your recruitment activities, as well as for the continuing development of your existing teams and to support on-going staff retention.
For tourism businesses with fewer than 20 employees, we plan to launch a process that enables them to participate in the excellent employer program and that will enable the voice of their employees to also be included.
We will have a dedicated B2B campaign running across 2023 to highlight the benefits to new businesses of registering. This will also give participating businesses an opportunity to leverage their involvement and support their recruitment activities for the season.
EEP is yielding excellent data and insights from participating businesses and employee surveys which we in Fáilte Ireland are using to develop business supports to help participating businesses implement their action plans and continue the development of their team.
To celebrate the successes to date of participating businesses, and to showcase what is already working well in the tourism sector, we will hold our first Employer Excellence Awards event this year, which we hope will become an annual celebration of the very best in employee engagement in tourism
Businesses who are currently registered on the programme and who have completed their surveys and learning will be invited to attend.
The event will take place on April 19th in Guinness Storehouse and 10 Category winners will be awarded, celebrating successful employee engagement
The awards will be complemented by a National Media campaign, which will spotlight best in class employers, as well as inspirational employees in the sector, showing the way in best practice engagement.
The second area I want to share with you is a new best in class learning management platform.
‘LearniFi’ will launch in March and will support employees to develop and progress their careers in a dynamic and agile way, that suits them and responds to the skills needs of the industry. This platform will also support you the employers as a great retention tool that helps to develop your teams and map out progression pathways and learning for your employees.
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LearniFI will have three key focus areas:
Supporting businesses to onboard and develop new employees effectively so that they can become high-performing members of staff who are more likely to be retained.
in phase 1 we are rolling out a series of induction and mandatory training modules. You have told us of the challenges you face when onboarding new team members with little or no experience, Having basic skills modules and this training in one place will make it easy to provide a structured and accessible induction programme for your new recruits.
The second focus area is Supporting employees to undertake professional development through learning linked directly to industry Progression Pathways and professional development modules. This will also support businesses to drive employee progression and retention.
Limited opportunities for career progression is cited as one of the key barriers for employees considering a career in the tourism
We will be rolling out a series of bitesize professional development modules linked to progression pathways, which we’ve created with the industry to reflect live roles. This will help drive a culture of professional development, creating awareness of learning opportunities needed for career progression.
Employees can pull content from Learnify to address identified skills gaps and target that next promotion.
And the third focus area is business performance, by supporting the development of employees, from new starters to managers, in areas most critical to business performance in a way that is agile and responds to emerging industry needs.
We will migrate relevant content from our Business support hub to LearniFI, creating a centralised place for all Fáilte Ireland supports. Making it easier for you and your team to access training to address capability gaps
And to give you a flavour of some of content that will be available at launch.
Onboarding / Induction: Kickstart your tourism journey, Introduction to GDPR, Health and Safety & Equality Diversity & Inclusion and some Role specific training for Food and Beverage, Kitchen Operations, Accommodation Services. There will be modules on Customer Service and Management Skills as well as Operational Performance
And the final section from me is short term lets.
In September 2021 as part of Housing for all strategy and action was called out committing to the development of "new regulatory controls requiring short-term and holiday lets to register with Fáilte Ireland with a view to ensuring that houses are used to best effect in areas of housing need”
The Department of Tourism, developed legislation to allow for the establishment of the register working closely with Department of Housing and Fáilte Ireland.
The Short-Term Tourist Letting Bill allows for the establishment of a national register to complement existing tourist registers. Short Term Tourist Letting is defined as any accommodation offered to tourists for periods up to and including 21 nights. This gives Fáilte Ireland the power to ensure that only properties with a valid FI registration number are advertised (all providers of accommodation will have to display a FI registrations number on their adverting).
The legislation also impacts booking platforms requiring regular reporting to Fáilte Ireland. And it gives us the power to share STTL register data with Local Authorities.
Bill is currently undergoing Oireachtas and EU scrutiny with a likely enactment date in early April 2023.
The new register does not make any changes to the existing statutory responsibilities of accommodation providers, for example planning permission – however its introduction will make properties more visible to authorities and therefore issues such as planning are more likely to arise.
We are very aware of the uncertainty and confusion around PP so for the first six months there will be a clarification or transition period which will allow everyone to continue to trade.
Fáilte Ireland are working with DHLGH on developing planning permission guidance to ensure a balanced and consistent approach. And we have met with LA’s with Dept Housing to brief them on the process and gain input and buy into the planning guidelines. We have also been and will continue to advocate for the importance of short term lets, particularly in rural areas with Government and Local Authorities.
We will continue to engage with representative groups and businesses who will be impacted by the register and keep them informed on progress.
So how will this work? Any party offering accommodation for periods of up to and including 21 nights will need to be registered with FI
You will be able to register via a quick and user-friendly online portal, and it is an annual registration.
Upon successful registration you will instantly receive a registration number which you must display when advertising.
Properties already registered with us will not need to register twice – they will be contacted by us and given a number to use.
And all advertisers for example online booking platforms must check property details and only advertise properties with a valid Fáilte Ireland registration number.
So before I finish I want to encourage you to avail of the wide range of supports available and to wish you a successful 2023 season and now I am now going to hand over to Jill, our head of consumer planning and she is going to introduce you to the new Domestic Motivations Framework which explores tourists reasons for travel and how they can be used in the Demand space.
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