Room for everyone as hospitality sector enjoys purple patch

Then there was the announcement that the hugely anticipated Belfast Grand Central Hotel will welcome its first guests in just a month’s time on June 18 - not that there’s going to be a lot of sleep around that particular stretch of Bedford Street before that, mind you.

That news, in turn, was accompanied by the latest data from the Northern Ireland statistics agency NISRA which showed that over the first quarter of 2018, our hotels in general enjoyed record-breaking sales.

A total of 463,500 hotel rooms were sold between January to March of this year - an increase of 6% from the same period in 2017.

Armed with all that heartwarming information, the business desk set off with a spring in its step for a luncheon to mark the official opening of the Maldron Hotel, raised up ahead of time and under budget by Cookstown based McAleer&Rushe, on the site of the former College of Business Studies on Brunswick Street.

En route, we passed the recently extended Ten Square, the under restoration/construction George Best Hotel, and the aforementioned Grand Central.

Addressing the lunch was the Lord Mayor Nuala McAllister who is close to the end of her term by most accounts will be a hard act to follow.

Welcomed by manager Mike Gatt, himself catering/hospitality student on the site many moons ago, Ms McAllister outlined the drive to encourage business tourism to the city which had been shown to lead to those tourists returning for a holiday visit. That, she said, only served to highlight the importance in attracting more events such as the RCN bash this week.

Another impressive feature of the lunch was Mike Gatt’s invitation to his catering and waiting staff to come firward and accept a round of applause in appreciation of their efforts.

As well as showing some generosity and his understanding of how to motivate his team, it also sends a signal that the hospitality sector is growing in size and importance and that a career can be built alongside the new hotels bars and restaurants that adorn the city and beyond.