The awards, handed out at The Medley in Dublin, recognise the best tourism providers and operators across the island of Ireland and internationally, with Visit Derry singled out alongside the likes of Dublin Airport, Aran Island Ferries and Galway Bay Hotel.

A key component in the award win was the new state-of-the-art visitor information centre beside the city’s iconic city walls at Waterloo Place. It offers a full range of visitor services, including expert advice, digital information kiosks, interactive maps and videos, tourism literature, tickets, and gift shop.

Odhran Dunne, Chief Executive at Visit Derry, said: “We are delighted to have won Best Local Tourist Board at this year’s Irish Travel Trade Awards and are grateful to all those who voted.

“This win recognises the work and passion that goes into the promotion of the city and region and, of course, the excellent partnerships we have with our industry.

“We are continually looking at innovative and engaging ways to raise awareness of the destination and to provide world-class visitor servicing when visitors arrive here.

‘Unique sense of place’

“As tourism recovery continues into 2022, the award is an endorsement in the work we do, as the city’s destination management organisation, to support our 200 industry partners.”

Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council Alderman Graham Warke added: “This is fantastic news for our tourism sector. Whether it’s our strong cultural heritage offering, unique sense of place or leading foodie scene, Derry/Londonderry offers a vibrant destination for visitors.

“As a crucial cog in the tourism ecosystem, I would like to congratulate Visit Derry on their recent award win.

“The performance of Visit Derry is vital to supporting the tourism industry as it recovers, and this award reinforces the city’s position as a must-visit destination.”

Visit Derry also recently launched the Visit Derry Pass, an innovative integrated digital ticket. As the first-of-its-kind digital pass to be launched in Northern Ireland. It provides visitors with access to 10 attractions and activities, making it even easier for visitors to plan a trip to the Walled City.

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Since yesterday (Monday), hospitality businesses in the region – where virus infections have surged in recent days – have been limited to takeaway, delivery and restricted outdoor dining and all cultural attractions have been closed.

Trade body, Hospitality Ulster, said today that the entire industry was standing with colleagues in the north-west with the message, ‘You are not alone’.

‘Our industry faces many challenges across the province, sustainability being one of them. The hospitality industry in Derry and Strabane is fighting for its survival today as restrictions are now in place that effectively amount to a lockdown of the sector,’ said HU chief executive, Colin Neill.

Mr Neill said that effectively, businesses in the area were now in the same position they had been at the outset of the crisis in March and that a substantial rescue package was essential to mitigate the losses that would be sustained over the next two weeks.

‘Allowing only 15 people maximum indoors gives the illusion that the sector s open, but the stark reality is that it cannot and has effectively been given no option but to be better off shut,’ he went on.

‘The north-west has an economic disaster on its hands and it is imperative for those in the sector to get immediate aid and support. This is not a time for procrastination. We need money and support directed to those in the industry who are rapidly losing hope for their businesses and their employees at the front end of the newly imposed restrictions across the council area.’

Niall McDermott, who owns two wet pubs in the city – The Phoenix and The Park Bar – told LCN today (Tuesday) that he’d had little option but to close his premises when the tighter coronavirus restrictions took effect.

‘We were only able to open our doors on September 23 and then we had to close again yesterday,’ he confirmed. ‘We do have an off-licence at one of the bars and it’s doing a bit of business but if it hadn’t been for the furlough scheme, there would definitely have been job losses.’

Niall, who employs 12 full and part-time staff, said that as soon as he learned of plans to introduce new, tighter measures in the north-west, he thought, ‘Here we go again.’

‘The whole thing is just up the left and all [these restrictions] will do is force more people into going to house parties rather than to the bar where there is a controlled environment.’

He also said that he was ‘very worried’ about the prospects for his business going forward:

‘Furlough is coming to a close at the end of October and I don’t think that the new scheme which is coming in is worth talking about,’ he added. ‘I am very concerned about what is going to happen between now and Christmas.’

Niall believes that a two-week ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown is also a distinct possibility and says that he has little option now but to wait for the situation to improve:

‘Hopefully the rate of infection will slow down and we’ll be able to get opened up again…hopefully.’

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The hotel, which had been owned by the O’Kane and Donnelly families, is now the property of brothers, Adam and Barry Kemp and their business partner, Sam Harding.

Word of the investment came recently during a successful application at the Crown Court in Derry-Londonderry to increase the licensed area of the hotel in order to accommodate an extension.

The court heard that plans were in place to build an orangery-style conservatory in the basement. The development will involve converting three basement bedrooms into a bar and restaurant, leading onto a large patio area. Longer term, the main bedroom area of the hotel is also to be extended.

In an interview with this magazine in January, Sam Harding revealed that the partners’ vision for the 400-year-old hotel involved repackaging it as a leading Irish wedding venue.

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Among those in the vanguard of the Derry-Londonderry’s evolving food culture is husband and wife team Melanie and Ciaran Breslin, whose popular Primrose restaurant brand is a prime example of the way in which small, atmospheric venues with an emphasis on local and Irish cuisine are helping drive the transformation.

The Breslins currently have two restaurants in the city – their main outlet on the Strand Road, which they opened in 2017 following a move from their original base on Carlisle Road, and a second, riverfront eatery, Primrose at the Quay, which opened in 2014.

Both venues are currently ranked 4.5 out of five on Trip Advisor and they enjoy very strong approval ratings among their local clientele – a factor that Ciaran Breslin is adamant has much to do with their reputation for providing a great value Irish breakfast:

‘Melanie and I are both food freaks and we love to travel,’ he told LCN recently ‘Everything is really food-orientated with us when we’re away and we always go out for a nice breakfast wherever we happen to be. Eventually, it struck us, that there was nowhere in Derry where you could go to get a really nice breakfast and I think the idea just grew from that.

‘We initially decided to open a coffee shop that was focused on really good produce and doing great breakfasts and lunches. Our ethos has always been to source the best local produce that we can find.’

Primrose opened its doors for the first time in 2011 on Carlisle Road.

‘As soon as we opened the doors, it grew legs and it hasn’t stopped since. It’s been fantastic,’ says Ciaran, who is a butcher by trade and still operates a successful butcher’s shop on the city’s Buncrana Road.

Another of the key planks of Primrose’s success is its famous ‘scratch bakery’, which is now based at its Strand Road premises. Melanie has been an enthusiastic baker all her life, often supplying family and friends with her highly sought-after cupcakes and scones.

As the couple began to realise the commercial potential behind Melanie’s culinary skills, they started to sell her produce via Ciaran’s butcher’s shop, eventually establishing a stand-alone bakery at the Skeoge Industrial Estate on the Beraghmore Road.

Then, when they moved the Primrose from its original base on Carlisle Road to its new home in the town centre in 2017, they took the opportunity to integrate the scratch bakery on the same site.

‘A lot of what we produce at the Primrose now is based on recipes from Melanie or her grandmother and we haven’t changed the way we do them since we started,’ adds Ciaran.

‘I don’t think that we thought Primrose would be as successful as quickly as it was,’ says Ciaran. ‘What really surprised us was the public reception, which was fantastic.

‘We always try to be innovative, to keep things evolving. I think if you just stay still in this, people will overlook you. We try to be different and to change things up as much as we can while sticking to our original ethos.’

A total of 40 staff are currently employed across both Primrose outlets. Head chef at the main Strand Road restaurant is Bryn Evans, an experienced chef and one of Ciaran’s neighbours. He stepped into the breach some months ago when the previous chef moved on and he’s become an invaluable addition to the staff, says Ciaran.

‘Bryn also has his own rare breed pig business and we use his produce extensively on our menus, including our fantastic sausages and Tirkeeran black puddings.’

The Strand Road venue seats around 40 customers at the front of the premises where they can experience a more bistro-orientated ambience. At the rear, where the atmosphere is much more that of a traditional restaurant, there is room for about 75 more diners.

Around 60 diners can be accommodated at the smaller outlet on the quay and they can enjoy stunning views across the River Foyle, which is only about 15 yards from the front door.

‘I think our success is the result of a combination of all the little things that we do,’ says Ciaran. ‘We set the bar very high and we never drop it. The whole Primrose experience is fantastic from start to finish, the food, the décor, the ambience and our staff are a credit to us, we have a fantastic team in both outlets.’

Ciaran agrees that Derry-Londonderry definitely has a burgeoning reputation as a foodie destination – and it’s a label that’s happy to encourage. He sits on a steering group which has just been formed by Derry City Council with the aim of developing the region’s culinary credentials and draw in more tourists.

‘We’re going to be presenting an action plan this month that we think is going to help traders to get behind tourism and bring more people into the city to enjoy our food offering,’ reveals Ciaran.

‘This is definitely becoming a food destination and I think it’s just down to like-minded people working together, that’s really been key I think.’

As for the future, Ciaran says that work to consolidate the business at Strand Road is still a priority, but he doesn’t rule out eventual expansion:

‘Our dream would be to open another premises somewhere outside the city,’ he adds. ‘We have nowhere in mind, but I don’t think that a third place in Derry would work.

‘I’d like to think that in the long term, w would be a running a business very similar to what we have today, with the same ethos, but perhaps with another couple of premises under our belt.’

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The Beech Hill hotel in Derry-Londonderry represents an initial foray into the local hospitality trade for The House Collection – the first step in what this partnership of like-minded entrepreneurs is hoping will eventually become a network of stylish country house hotels across Ireland.

Adam and Barry Kemp and Sam Harding bought the well-respected hotel on the outskirts of the city in the autumn from the O’Kane and Donnelly families who have owned and run the Beech Hill for the last two decades.

Five new jobs were quickly announced and the trio visited the 400-year-old property in October to reveal more of their ambitious plans for its development.

Their vision for the hotel involves re-packaging it as a leading Irish wedding venue and many of the improvements currently underway and planned at the Beech Hill are with that objective in mind. But speaking to LCN in December, House Collection MD, Sam Harding revealed that the partners have broader plans for their newest acquisition:

‘What we really want is for this place to be timeless, to look as if it’s always been here,’ he explains. ‘There are 28 bedrooms – 14 in the original house and 14 in the new wing – and eventually, we’re going to tell the story of the whole property and follow it through all of its 400 years. We’re going to look at each of the rooms in the original house and re-theme them so that each has its own identity.’

It’s part of a deliberate strategy by the partners who share the same vision of a boutique chain of quality Irish hotels:

‘We bought this particular hotel because it ticked the boxes for us,’ says Sam. ‘We’re not offering the sort of thing that you look to city centre hotels to provide. We want our offering to be unique and to tell its own strong stories. This is a 400-year-old building with a huge amount of history and we want people to come and stay here for the experience, not because they need to stay in Derry for meetings or whatever.’

London-born Sam Harding (38), comes to the House Collection with a strong background in retail and hospitality. A former marketing manager for leading sports brand, Reebok, he has also worked in the fast-paced environment of five-star cruise liners. He spent almost three years working for Merlin Entertainments, which owns the Alton Towers resort and he was operations director for Macau-based entertainment group, Melco for four-and-a-half years.

‘I have experience of the service and operating standards of some of the best businesses in the world and what we’re aiming to do is bring those standards into our business here in Ireland,’ Sam tells LCN. ‘There are lots of family-owned, country house hotels in the UK and Ireland that have been run by the same people for years, run their own way. What we aim to do is run each of our hotels as professionally-organised businesses.’

The three partners have known and worked with each other for around 10 years and at one time, Barry and Sam worked together on a project in the Middle East.

While Sam oversees the business as a whole, Barry uses his background in the hospitality trade to take care of the day-to-day running of the business while Adam – an aeronautical engineer by trade – ensure that the right systems and processes are in place.

As well as the Beech Hill, The House Collection also owns a gastro-pub called The House in Donegal Town, which it opened a year ago. It currently has a five-star rating on Trip Advisor.

This is the fledgling group’s first business in Northern Ireland and Sam says that they’ve found the hospitality environment here to be ‘fantastic’.

‘The thing for us is that we specifically focus on the north-west of Ireland,’ he says. ‘We think that it’s the most beautiful part of the country along that Causeway Coast to Donegal and the Wild Atlantic Way. The south coast of Galway and Cork and Kerry have got a lot of attention, but we feel that this area is still somewhat untapped from a marketing perspective and it’s much more raw and beautiful for that reason.

‘This is a 400-year-old building with a huge amount of history and we want guests to come and stay here for the experience they will have.’

As for the Beech Hill, work is currently underway to create a new cellar restaurant and pub at the hotel. Offering around 80 covers, that work should be finished on schedule by April.

‘In the longer term, our biggest focus is going to be on weddings, we really want to be seen as the best wedding venue and the best four-star hotel in the city,’ says Sam. ‘Eventually, we want this to be the complete wedding and leisure venue where people come to spend the weekend, take in the grounds and just have a really good time.’

The House Collection has a clear vision in place and the group intends to grow in 2019 with the acquisition of other properties. Negotiations have already started with interested parties in the region.

‘We have been building the base of the group structure since we acquired Beech Hill and we see this as the perfect place to build our model, then roll it out across other properties,’ said Sam. ‘We want to be careful and selective and we want the right properties that are unique and present us with great opportunities.’

‘We want to be careful and strategic with this, we have to find the right properties.’

Another focus for 2019 will be on staff. Sam says that they want The House Collection to be seen as an employer of choice:

‘We want people to see hospitality as a career, rather than somewhere that they work an 80-hour week for two years and burn themselves out,’ he adds. ‘We believe there is a big difference in customer service and hospitality. Customer service is a skill, but hospitality is the personal touch and we think we’ll make a bigger difference because of that.

‘What we want is to have hotels that are quintessentially Irish because when people abroad think of Ireland, they see it in warm and friendly terms, but that’s very often not what they get when they arrive.’

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