Mayo North Invites you to Meet our Members – Great National Hotel, Ballina
At Mayo North we are excited to welcome you to our new Meet Our Members series. Passionate about our Mayo North region and all it offers to visitors on and off the Wild Atlantic Way, we believe strongly in working collaboratively to let the world know about our area and to develop quality tourism here. Several of our tourism providers have the same idea and they have decided to become Members of Mayo North so we can share our resources and expertise in the goal of increasing sustainable, good quality tourism in our area that will benefit visitors, businesses and the entire community. Welcome to the first episode in our series: Meet our Members – Great National Hotel, Ballina.
About The Great National Hotel, Ballina
The Great National Hotel Ballina is situated on the outskirts of North Mayo’s capital town, on the Foxford and Dublin Road (N26). This luxurious four-star hotel boasts 87 guest rooms, swimming facilities, a Beauty Spot spa for the perfect ambience to relax, the stylish McShane’s Bar and Bistro as well as beautiful banquet and meeting suites, including the iconic Nephin Suite. It is the perfect location for a special wedding, for corporate meetings and networking events, or for an enjoyable lunch with family or friends.
Siobhán, Raymond and team at the Great National Hotel pride themselves on delivering attentive personal service that is always outstanding but never intrusive. Once one enters into the reception area of the Great National Hotel Ballina, one feels the warm and cosy atmosphere of a welcoming location and perhaps it is for this reason that guests like to make this hotel a base from which to explore North Mayo’s Wild Atlantic Way Céide Coast, visit the area’s many sights or get set for a variety of things to do in this part of Mayo. When you are considering Mayo hotels, be sure to put Great National Hotel Ballina high on the list.
In the first episode of our series, Meet our Members – Great National Hotel, Ballina, we are excited to sit down with Raymond Horkan, Sales and Marketing Manager at the hotel. Thanks for being the first of our members to be interviewed, Raymond!
Meet our Members – Great National Hotel, Ballina – interview with Raymond Horkan
Great National Hotel, Ballina – what makes it unique?
Raymond: “Unique for us is the combination of our hospitality, the facilities that we have, the scope of ground around the hotel that we have that allows us to have a nice leisure centre, pool and spa. And the combination then, with our staff, who have been with us for quite some time just brings that Irish welcome for guests as they are staying with us here in Ballina”.
Being part of the Great National Hotel, Ballina team – proudest experiences?
Raymond: “We’ve organised some trips where we’ve brought in delegations to experience the hotel and also to experience Mayo North, and that for me was a real eye-opener.
I was bringing people in for the first time, looking at Ballina as a destination, somewhere where they might be able to come back on holiday. And it was just getting their first impressions, while they came to the hotel but also in what they saw and experienced while they stayed with us in and around the Céide Coastline and I think that for me was fantastic. It was a real sense of achievement that – we brought these people in, we showed them an exceptionally good time, they were made really feel welcome and at home by everybody that we brought them to meet.”
Strong belief in value of working together to promote tourism in Mayo North
Mayo North: “Why did you decide to become a Member of the Mayo North Initiative?”
Raymond: “For myself, I’ve seen the benefits of collaborative marketing, trying to bring a destination to the public. And I really feel that one business on their own can’t do it – it has to be everybody. And it is everybody, as I say, that is involved in tourism, from the biggest hotels to the smallest guesthouse, to the attractions, to the person that is maybe planting the flowerpots, that people feel welcome in the town.
And I really think by everybody working together, everybody pulling together, everybody pooling their resources and giving the same message, it really will help to promote Mayo North as a destination and, we have attractions and activities that rival any part of the country or anywhere in the world … I think for me, it’s just the opportunity to allow more people to experience that is the real benefit of having Mayo North as an umbrella for everyone to work together.
Mayo North: “In the future, what do you think the Mayo North initiative can achieve?”
Raymond: “I think results are probably boundless. There is so much opportunity, so much scope for tourism here in North Mayo. We have an exceptionally beautiful part of the world. And I think the professionalism that Mayo North is bringing in combining and bringing everybody together to work together, I think, will really see the start of something that will develop into a unique destination in tourism. For me, it’s something that I’m excited to be part of and something that I’m proud to be involved in. And it’s something that I really would like to see more people join, and just bring their shared knowledge and resources together and help us just move this part of Mayo as a tourism destination.”
Mayo North: “What would you like to see coming from your membership – where would you see the Great National?”
Raymond: “For ourselves, we are very proud to be part of launching and helping promote Mayo North as a destination. Personally, I’ve seen the benefits of destination marketing and people working together to promote an area. So what I would like to see is that more members will join and then more people will start to see the benefits of it, that Mayo North will become recognised as a tourism brand within Ireland and around the world, and following from it then we’ll start to see, I suppose, more business events start to evolve as more tourists come into the area, that we have activities, and attractions will develop to allow people to experience this part of Mayo.
So, I think this is just the start of something that will really help to help tourism and move tourism forward in and around Mayo North”.
For further information about the Great National Hotel, Ballina or to book:
Telephone: +353 96 23600
Email: [email protected]
Online: www.hotelballina.ie – Great National Hotel Ballina on Facebook
How to Become a Member of Mayo North
If you would like to join in promoting tourism in our area collaboratively, we invite you to learn about our Mayo North Membership Scheme 2019. To obtain full details of benefits and contributions, please contact us at:
Mayo North Tourism, Pearse St., Ballina, Co. Mayo
Tel: 096 80090 | Email: [email protected]
Thank you for listening to the very first episode in this series, “Meet our Members – Great National Hotel, Ballina”, where we had the pleasure of speaking to Raymond Horkan about his hotel and about promoting tourism in Mayo North. Stay tuned for our next episode, “Meet our Members – Dillon’s Bar and Restaurant Ballina” (coming soon).
