Ramore rethinks its hikes in menu prices during The Open in Portrush
One of Northern Ireland’s best-known restaurants has reportedly had a rethink about its price hikes surrounding The Open.
According to the BBC, at the popular Ramore Wine Bar next to the town’s harbour, the price of a chicken and bacon burger had gone from £7.95 to £17.95.
Meanwhile, a bowl of chilli chicken pasta had gone from £14.95 to £27.95.
It reported that the management have now reconsidered the rises, and instead the burger now costs £12.95 at lunch and £13.95 at dinner, while the pasta costs £17.95 at lunch and £24.95 at dinner.
The Ramore Restaurants group includes the wine bar, the Harbour Bar, Basalt, and Neptune and Prawn.
A mass of visitors are expected to descend on Portrush over the coming days for the international golf contest, with many fans pinning their hopes on Northern Ireland’s own Rory McIlroy to emerge victorious.
The contest has led to various businesses raising their prices, as they seek to take advantage of the boom.
Just a couple of days ago, Tourism NI chief executive John McGrillen had told the News Letter that golf tourists were much more valuable on average than regular ones.
In all, he said some 278,000 day tickets had been sold to about 140,000 people for the event.
“Just less than half” of them hail from Northern Ireland, with much of the rest coming from GB and the Republic whilst “America makes up about one-fifth of the number of people coming” from outside Northern Ireland.
He said that a typical golf tourist would be expected to spend perhaps three to four times “what an average leisure visitor would”.
“So they are very high value. Many of these people are coming from the United States, a lot of them are high-worth individuals.
“Quite often these people might come in their own private jets, you know – that's the nature of that segment of the market.
“It is really lucrative. And the value of golf tourism here has more than doubled over the last 10 years.
“In fact, the amount of money spent by golf tourists here has gone up by 66% since The Open was held back in 2019, and it's worth around 86m quid per year.”
The BBC today quoted a Ramore spokesperson as saying that the initial price increases reflected “the significant investment we've made to ensure a safe, enjoyable, and high-quality experience for both locals and visitors”, with over 30 agency staff brought in, plus over 30 security personnel and over 20 entertainers.
“All of our restaurants are open every day during this exceptionally busy period, and we're committed to delivering the best possible hospitality to everyone who visits,” the group said.
“That said, we've listened to the feedback and, as of today, have taken steps to revise and adjust pricing across all of our restaurant menus going forward.”
The group said it plans to further reduce prices again once The Open concludes.