Tony Walker, general manager, Slieve Russell Hotel, Ballyconnell.

Major conference to bring 300 to Cavan

The Irish Hotel’s Federation’s (IHF's) 80th annual two-day conference will take place in the Slieve Russell Hotel in Ballyconnell over the next couple of days, Monday and Tuesday, February 26-27.
Some 300 hotel and guesthouse owner/managers will attend the event, which will focus on how the growth in Irish tourism in recent years can be sustained.
Chaired by broadcaster, Joanne Cantwell, speakers at the conference will include Paul Kelly, Chief Executive of Fáilte Ireland; Niall Gibbons, Chief Executive of Tourism Ireland; Maurice Pratt, chairman of the Irish Tourism Industry Federation; Daragh Feighery, General Manager of Center Parcs Longford Forest; Tim Husbands MBE, Chief Executive of Westport House and Hotel Westport; Professor Jim Deegan, Director of the National Centre for Tourism Policy Studies at the University of Limerick; Paul O’Connell, former Ireland and Lions Captain and Carol Spiers, expert on managing organisational change.
There will be around 60 exhibition stands at the conference, which will be visited by hundreds more.
The general manager of the Slieve Russell Hotel, Tony Walker, told The Anglo-Celt that this will be the fourth time the conference will have taken place at the west Cavan venue in the past 12 years.
Mr Walker said the overflow from those not being accommodated at the Slieve Russell will be catered for at the Cavan Crystal Hotel.
“They enjoy coming here because of the scale of the property – the fact that we have so much exhibition space for them and the fact that we can accommodate a lot of people here in the 222 rooms,” said Mr Walker.