Local boost as G8 Summit announced for neighbouring Fermanagh

A number of local hotels have been blocked booked, while there are hopes the tourism boost will extend further still after British Prime Minister David Cameron confirmed next year's G8 summit will be held at the Lough Erne Hotel and Resort, in neighbouring Fermanagh. With leaders from some of the world's most powerful nations, and their entourages, not to mention legions of the world's press to descend upon border region between on the week of 17-18 June, and accommodation locally is set to be at a premium while the event takes place. The Slieve Russell Hotel in Ballyconnell, and hotels in the Cavan Town area have been requested to take no further reservations for the weekend, through to the following Tuesday as the as governments of the US, Russia, Germany, France, Italy, the UK, Japan and Canada meet only a short drive up the road. According to local sources, an London-based booking agency block booked hotel rooms in all hotels in the area for the mid-June week almost six-weeks ago. Only on Monday last did guests at the luxury Lough Erne Resort, on Belleek Road just outside Enniskillen have to be evacuated after fire broke out at the in the spa and pool area of the three-storey hotel shortly after 7am. Some 25 crew members across six separate brigades of the NI Fire and Rescue Service, from Enniskillen, Irvinestown, Lisnaskea, Belleek, and Strabane attended the blaze and the fire was extinguished just after 10am. The first floor of the hotel was said to be heavily smoke-logged, while uests were quickly evacuated and no injures have been reported. The summit is one of the most high-profile events ever to be witnessed in Northern Ireland and Mr Cameron made the announcement the Enniskillen resort would be the location while visiting Armagh yesterday (Tuesday). Barack Obama is expected to be among those in attendance, and there are high hopes, given that Ireland is to celebrate the year of The Gathering, that the US President re-elect would make a repeat of his visit south of the border as he did when he visited Moneygall last year. The last time the G8 summit was held in the United Kingdom was at Gleneagles in Scotland in 2005, however, Obama will not be the first US president to visit the region, with Bill Clinton having visited Enniskillen on a number of occasions, and a local community centre in the town bearing his name.