After one of the worst years in the history of the tourism industry, a family in Rossnowlagh, Co Donegal, are fighting back with a €4 million (£3.2 million) investment in their business.
Since 1948, the Sandhouse Hotel and the Britton family who run it have been synonymous with holidays at the beach-side resort.
While many tourism operators are holding back from non-essential spending after the downturn of 2001, the Brittons are adding a fourth storey, which will include six conference rooms, a marine spa and 25 "mini- suites".
The investment is an effort to attract the lucrative corporate conference and short-break markets, and to get away from depending heavily on American tourists. It will also mean full-time employment for staff who, up until now, have been working on a seasonal basis.
Mr Paul Diver, manager of the hotel and Donegal secretary of the Irish Hotels Federation, said the investment was coming at a time when tourism operators were being very cautious. "A lot of people are putting off non-essential investment at the moment. But the Brittons believe they have to invest in their business to overcome the difficulties of the last year," he said, adding that Donegal had been particularly badly hit by the foot-and-mouth crisis.
Negative reports of traffic delays at the Border as a result of checkpoints also affected tourism.
Mr Brian Britton said 2001 marked the first time the hotel had ever lost money, but he is still optimistic for the future. "We are coming out of the year that brought us foot-and-mouth disease, that saw St Patrick's Day cancelled, Aer Lingus strikes and, of course, the consequences of the horrible events of September 11th," he said. The Sandhouse had lost £86,000 in bed nights between September 11th and the end of the season, he said.
"However we were already taking steps to avoid our dependency on the American market over the last 12 months and, to me, the dramatic downturn at the end of the season was only another reason to press ahead.
"A whole new short breaks market has opened up here at home over the last five years. Unfortunately a lot of these people think Donegal is somewhere next to Iceland rather than just 132 miles from Dublin," he said.