Foreign workers keeping céad míle fáilte alive and well, say tourists

TOURISTS still feel they get a distinctly Irish welcome on arrival in Ireland, though staff at hotels and pubs are likely to be from their own home countries.

Hospitality Ireland magazine questioned visitors arriving at Dublin Airport to find whether the growing number of immigrants in the tourism sector had changed the typical céad míle fáilte welcome.

A mere one in 10 thought the traditional welcome had changed in recent years, while 73% felt the hospitality they received was distinctly Irish.

In May, the Central Statistics Office revealed almost one in three of the 120,000 workers in the Republic’s hotel and restaurant trade were foreign nationals. Of these, 18,100 were from new EU countries such as Poland, 3,700 from longer-established EU nations and 2,000 from Britain.

Yesterday, Hospitality Ireland’s Steve Wynne-Jones said most tourists believed that being served by non-Irish staff did not detract from their time in Ireland.

“For me, the distinctly Irish welcome is the warmth visitors feel when they first arrive, the fact that people are interested in them and are genuinely welcoming,” he said.

He said the hospitality industry still had a noticeably Irish feel despite the growth in internationally owned hotels and increase in staff from overseas.

The Hospitality Magazine survey of 100 tourists, carried out over three days, sought visitors’ feelings on their time in Ireland and how they are received in hotels and pubs.

An English tourist said: “Places will employ people in reception or at the bar, but they don’t have very good English. That’s when people get irritated.”

One visitor from Poland on a trip to Dublin said tourists should not expect a traditional welcome in any European capital city, as such places tended to be multicultural in outlook.

“The welcome and the atmosphere in Dublin is not something I’d call Irish, as you really could be anywhere in the world,” said the visitor.

An Australian who flies to Ireland every year said he noticed an increase in non-Irish workers but the atmosphere was the same.

“The service is still good and I haven’t noticed a decline in the Irishness of the welcome,” he said.

About two-thirds said the welcome they got was as they expected, while 17% said the typical Irish welcome was a myth.