Great Southern Hotel’s McKeown steps down

EAMONN McKEOWN, the chief executive of the Great Southern Hotel group, has stepped down from his position.

Mr McKeown has been head of the group, which is currently owned by Aer Rianta, for the past 20 years.

During this period the company has grown to become one of the largest hotel chains in Ireland and has been in business for 150 years. Great Southern owns eight hotels and has a 25% stake in the City Hotel in Derry, which it also manages.

While the future ownership of the Great Southern chain may be in some doubt, it still has expansion plans with a major development earmarked for Parknasilla and its Corrib hotel.

Mr McKeown said in a statement yesterday: “I’ve been too busy all my life to retire from business completely, and so I plan to have some involvement in the tourism sector for a few more years.”

Aside from his role in Great Southern, Mr McKeown has been active in the tourism industry for a number of years.

He was president of the Irish Hotels Federation and a former chairman of the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation.

Mr McKeown was also a director of the Shannon School of Hotel Management and was chairman of the Government’s tourism training body CERT before its merger with Bord Failte.

According to Aer Rianta’s annual report for 2003, the hotel company increased its turnover by 3.4% to €44.5 million, but profits were down 27% at €2.85. This was due to a loss on the sale on the Torc Great Southern Hotel, Killarney.

The Minister for Transport had considered selling off the Great Southern chain as part of plans to break up Aer Rianta.

However, consultants PriceWaterhouseCoopers advised against that.