This article is from page 33 of the 2008-04-15 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 33 JPG
DESPITE doom and gloom predic- tions on the tourism font, a fourth generation Lahinch hotelier has rea- son to smile this week.
Michael Vaughan of the Vaughan Lodge, Lahinch walked away with the Small Hotel and Guesthouse of the Year honour at the eleventh an- nual Ireland Golf Tour Operators Awards Dinner.
For Michael, his wife Marie and 17 staff of the hotel, it was a proud pubhca ale
“We’re absolutely delighted. Hav- ing been open for just three years and heading into our fourth season, it’s a
real honour to get an award this early on. And coming from our peers, it’s areal fillip’, said Michael.
The couple returned to Michael’s home-ground of Lahinch to set up the hotel and fulfill a dream.
“It’s always been my ambition to come back to Lahinch’, said Michael. The proprietor of Vaughans is a fourth generation hotelier in the town, his father having run the Aber- deen Arms and his father and grand- father before him.
Having trained in London and France and worked for thirteen years with Jury’s then a stint as director of golf at Dromoland, Michael was de- lighted to be back on home turf.
The hotel is a four-star operation employing 17 people with seasonal opening between March and Novem- ber for links golfing holidays.
It has already been commended in the Bridgestone Guide, Georgina Cambell, Lucinda O’Sullivan, Alis- tar Sawdays and Best Loved Holi- days.
Michael says that the forecast is not good for the lucrative US golf tour- ism business.
“It’s widely anticipated that busi- ness will be down by about 15 per cent. So this award is a great morale boost coming at a time when we are facing into a challenging season’, he Sr HKOe
The black-tie gala event at the new Ritz-Carlton Hotel at Powerscourt, Co Wicklow was attended by more than 250 influential members of the Golf Industry, with visitors from England, USA and Scotland includ- ed.
Central to the function was the presentation to the golf clubs and accommodations which excelled in their field over the past year.
Marty Carr, Chairman of the IG- TOA stated that “the reason that Ire- land is such a premier golfing desti- nation is because the service visitors receive, from golf to accommodation to transport, is of the highest cali- lionel