{"id":192248,"date":"2025-06-17T17:39:32","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T17:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/192248\/"},"modified":"2025-06-17T17:39:32","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T17:39:32","slug":"northern-irish-hotelier-honoured-to-be-on-kings-birthday-honours-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/192248\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Irish hotelier \u2018honoured\u2019 to be on King\u2019s birthday honours list"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>THE managing director of a Northern Irish hotel group was awarded an MBE in the King\u2019s birthday honours list.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>James McGinn, who has worked with Hastings Hotels for 29 years, has been recognised for his \u2018services to tourism and hospitality\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to being appointed managing director\u00a0of the group\u00a0in 2022,\u00a0Mr McGinn led their Europa Hotel for two decades.<\/p>\n<p>The hotel is one of Belfast\u2019s most famous properties &#8211; where former US President Bill and his wife, the former US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, have stayed three times, most recently in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>The hotel also became a base for local and overseas journalists during the Troubles \u2013 hosting the like sof Trevor McDonald, Kate Adie, John Sergeant and Richard Ford as they reported on the conflict from the front line.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-292712\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/James-McGinn.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\"\/> Hastings Hotels MD James McGinn<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s an honour to have received this recognition,\u201d McGinn said this week, as King Charles\u2019 honours list was revealed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTourism and hospitality are in my blood, and I\u2019m thankful for the career I have built at Hastings Hotels for the last 29 years and for the opportunities provided to me by the Hastings family,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would also like to thank my colleagues across the group, because without them, this recognition wouldn\u2019t be possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Having graduated in 1988 from Queen&#8217;s University Belfast, Mr McGinn moved to London for work before returning to Omagh in 1990 to work as Food and Beverage Manager in his\u00a0family\u2019s business, the Woodlander.<\/p>\n<p>He graduated with an MSc in Hotel and International Tourism Management from the University of Ulster in 1994 and then moved to the US.<\/p>\n<p>He worked the Hilton Hotel in Washington DC before returning to Northern Ireland in 1996, where he started his career with Hastings Hotels at the Europa Hotel.<\/p>\n<p>Founded almost sixty years ago by Sir William Hastings, Hastings Hotels is Northern Ireland\u2019s largest independently owned luxury hotel group.<\/p>\n<p>As well as the Europa, the group\u2019s other properties include the Culloden Estate and Spa, the Grand Central Hotel and the Stormont Hotel in Belfast as well as Ballygally Castle in Antrim and The Everglades Hotel in Derry.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>                One moment please&#8230;<br \/>\n                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1745126787_881_loading.gif\" alt=\"Loading...\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE managing director of a Northern Irish hotel group was awarded an MBE in the King\u2019s birthday honours&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-192248","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-northern-ireland","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114699931881143216","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}