Eire's image plea
Irish tourism minister John O'Donoghue has called for an end to "the myth of rip-off Ireland", which he claims is endangering the industry and the economy. The rip-off tag comes from complaints of high prices in hotels, restaurants and pubs in the Irish Republic, now rated second only to Finland as the most expensive country in the euro zone. He added that Ireland's image as an expensive destination was damaging in a competitive market with a lot of cheap holidays to Eastern Europe. O'Donoghue was speaking in Killarney, where he opened the g25m (£17.25m) Brehon hotel.
Seeing the light
UK food service operators have been urged to cash in on the demand for "light" meals. Nearly half of all meals eaten by UK consumers will be "light" by 2008, according to a new report from market analyst Datamonitor. This will represent a retail spend of £22.4b, up 30% from 2003. UK consumers currently spend an average of £286 a year on light meals - the highest level in Europe. But Datamonitor said operators and manufacturers were still not capitalising on the trend towards "grazing" throughout the day and eating smaller, less filling meals at mealtimes.
Eating-out boom
People are eating out more regularly than ever, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics. The figures show that between 1992 and 2002, people ate out more often, enjoyed a broader range of dishes and spent more money in caf‚s, bars and restaurants. In 2002 alone, £80b was spent in the UK on eating and drinking out, an 85% increase since 1992. The growth in dining out is also reflected by a rise in the number of businesses in the hotels, catering, pubs and restaurants industry. There were 122,700 businesses in 2002, compared with 109,000 in 1995.