At the coal-face, Rose Doyle talks to a busy professional in the tourism and catering business

Growing with the times we live in, Irish hospitality and tourism has been adding strands to its traditional bill of fare. While those traditions - food, comfort and lodgings - are as much the core of the industry as ever, the reality of a public with more leisure time, and money, has brought with it a demand for variety in all things.

The industry has responded, and training for work in area such as leisure and heritage centres, guiding and marketing are routinely on offer as part of, or expansions to, many of today's courses in hospitality and tourism.

John Magner has been an involved, and very active, observer of the industry for 10 years now. The human resources and business development manager at Fitzgerald's Woodland House Hotel in Adare, Co Limerick, he's a hugely energetic 27-year-old who loves what he does, and defends his relative youth by saying soundly that "age is one thing but experience is another altogether." Experience he has a-plenty, and views too on the changes happening in the industry.

"The most noticeable change is in the area of hospitality," he says, "in customer care and how we look after people. It's about both being a good operator, marketing the product, training people and being competitive in an environment where you have to fight for every corner. New hotels are opening up every day and so are different strands of hospitality. Something as simple as O'Briens Irish Sandwiches is an example and then there are heritage centres and towns, and the business of guiding."

Looking at other changes over the 10 years he's been in the industry, he cites our emerging multi-cultural society as one of the most significant. "It's introduced many different nationalities to the staff of hotels. I've no difficulties with this, and there wouldn't be any difficulties at all if the training was good. But there's a major problem developing in the hospitality sector because of a lack of training for these newcomers to the industry. It has to do with priorities. Everyone's in the business to make money and, at the end of the day, to make a profit. For too many people £10,000 or so spent on training isn't seen as a worthwhile investment."

Positive moves in recent years may redress the balance. He lauds the work of the Irish Hotel Federation in bringing about the kind of change needed, says that new laws (notably the Organisation of Working Time Act, and that ensuring a minimum wage) should see to it that employers "can no longer overwork and underpay workers. We're going to be forced to change. If we remain as we are we'll stagnate.

"The arrival here of international hotel chains such as The Four Seasons, Radisson and Westin is a force since all of these are Hospitality Best Practice players and we're going to have to keep pace. Best practice means, basically, looking at what and how a host of players perform, taking what they do best and creating a model for the rest of us. An example is to take the Ritz Carlton, where customer care is excellent, examine how they do it and apply the same principles. Another big factor nowadays is the professional approach. Everything is, and has to be, more professional so we're actively looking to the Continent and the US for the purposes of benchmarking."

Hospitality and tourism has, he says, "surpassed agriculture as the country's number 1 indigenous industry. With labour costs at 34 per cent we have to introduce efficiency - but we also have to provide a working enviroment where employees are happy. Over the last 10 years I've seen how badly well-trained people can be treated. It leads to a lot of them leaving the industry altogether, which is a shame. Things are changing in that respect too, with new leaders in the industry realising that good staff are very important and a lot of people coming back into the industry. We offer a flexible working enviroment so people who've raised families or are used to flexible working conditions respond to that aspect. Good staff certainly contribute to customers coming back since the one, memorable thing they take away is the people factor. The human element in our business is vital and dictates the quality of food, place and mood."

His belief in this country keeps him fired up. "Ireland is fantastic," he says, "but the big problem is service and follow up. Delivering on promises made is very important. The new Irish customer is prepared to spend an extra few bob to get a quality product."

He sees new jobs in his own area of human resources, which has, he says, "developed considerably", and in marketing, "which has become important because of aggressive competitiveness". The leisure side of things, too, is a "big growth area", as are the wider areas of heritage, guiding, industrial catering and travel agenting.

He strikes a warning note, however. "If there's a downturn in the economy," he says, "there will be a cut-back in areas like human resources. You might see job rationalisation too, as in two jobs being rolled into one."

SOME of the courses across the country which offer training in those wider aspects of the tourism and hospitality industry include:

Galway-Mayo IT at Galway: national diplomas in tourism and services marketing, marketing for small tourism enterprises and in hospitality information technology.

GMIT at Castlebar: BA in heritage studies, national diplomas in outdoor education and leisure, in tourism and languages and in personnel management.

Waterford IT: BA degree in recreation and leisure.

Limerick IT: certificate in hospitality skills.

Tralee IT: national diplomas in international hospitality management or tourism skills. Advanced certificate in tourism business studies.

Inchicore College of Further Education, Dublin 8: higher national diploma in travel and tourism management and one in leisure and recreation management.

DIT: degree programme in retail and services management.

Ballyfermot College of Further Education, Dublin 10: diploma and certificate courses in reception and guiding, and in guiding.

Greenhills College, Dublin, 12: certificate courses in heritage, customer service and tourism and travel services.