Hopes high as trade signals strong start to Christmas

As the Christmas rush begins in earnest around NI, LCN has been gauging the level of confidence among hospitality traders here. Do early indications point to a memorable Christmas season for hotels, bars and restaurants?

As LCN went to press in early December, the trade really hadn’t had a chance to gauge the likely outcome of this year’s key Christmas selling period. The signs, however, are encouraging and sentiment among traders around the province is holding up well.

In the centre of Belfast, the Europa’s GM, James McGinn, declared that “Christmas started very early at the Europa” with large numbers of guests attending organised business and leisure events there and strong occupancy rates among visitors from all over Ireland. By the start of December, Friday and Saturday nights were at a premium in the hotel, he said.

“That’s partly due to visitors from the south taking advantage of a weaker pound,” he added. “But the influx of overnighters has also been driven by events such as the switching on of the Christmas lights and the arrival of the Continental Market.”

NI Hotels Federation chief executive, Janice Gault said that with occupancy rates in the capital hitting 90 per cent in the late autumn, she believed this would continue right through the festive season:

“There are lots of varied events taking place in different areas which are boosting visitor numbers, such as concerts, awards nights and normal weekend trade as well as pre-Christmas shows, shipping, Santa and pantomimes,” she added

And Mark Walker, the area general manager of Hilton in Northern Ireland, said recently that for his group, November had been a strong month:

“December is always busy with shoppers from across Northern Ireland and the Republic, and although we aren’t fully booked yet, it’s filling up,” he reported.

There’s also plenty of optimism outside the capital as well. A The Derg Arms in Enniskillen, bar supervisor, Stacey Morrison, says that the Christmas party programme at the bar is already well underway.

“We’re not quite booked out for Christmas just yet, but we are confident at this stage,” she told LCN. “It’s well-known that everyone in Castlederg books at the last minute!”

Stacey also said that across the trade generally in the Tyrone village, everyone was “fairly confident” of strong sales this festive season.

And it’s a similar story in the Co. Derry town of Magherafelt. The hospitality offering here is prolific, despite the town’s modest size, and at Bryson’s bar on Union Road, bar supervisor, Emma McIvor, reported sustained interest in the venue’s Christmas party night programme.

“We are very confident this year,” she reported. “Everybody is starting to get into the swing of the festive season now, bookings are good and I do think that it’s going to be a strong year for sales…Everybody in the town feels the same way, I think.”

And in Derry/Londonderry, Ciaran O’Neill reports a very positive start to the festivities at his Bishop’s Gate Hotel:

“This is our first Christmas, so we weren’t sure what to expect,” he said. “We have only organised four party nights this year but all of them are sold out. The decorations are up, the music is playing and we are looking forward to a strong season.”

Ciaran said that sentiment in the city generally was encouraging:

“Everybody is talking in a positive way about business and while we may be a little worried about January, February and March, I really don’t think we should be concerned about December,” he added.

Also in Derry, Sean Harrigan, head chef and owner of popular Sooty Olive restaurant on Spencer Road declared recently that things had “really taken off” for Christmas.

“It’s just bananas for us at both lunch and dinner times,” he added. “Christmas has really kicked off.”

The Sooty Olive doesn’t do party nights, but its menu does feature a turkey and ham dinner over the Christmas period:

“November was really good for us this year”, reported Sean, “and December has been even better. We’ve started well, everything is looking positive and we’re looking to a great result this Christmas.”

Christmas trade at the prestigious Galgorm Resort & Spa near Ballymena is also underway. By the end of November, the venue had run-out of availability for Christmas Day dining in all three of its restaurants, reported Victoria Brown.

Many of the resort’s Christmas party nights were offering limited availability and the new ‘Sunday with Santa’ event, which launched at the end of November and includes a Christmas market, was “more-or-less fully booked” as well.

As December got underway, the resort was looking forward to the installation of an outdoor skating rink, which was to be made available to those staying at the hotel and non-residents. This is the first time that Galgorm has had an attraction like this and it will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis:

“It’s so far, so good for us at Gagorm,” added Victoria. “We’re confident that things are looking very good for Christmas this year, bookings are coming in and we’re looking to do healthy business this festive season.”