Sir William Hastings founded Hastings Hotels which has grown to become known as offering the finest 4 and 5 star hotels in Northern Ireland including the Culloden Hotel and Spa, Slieve Donard Resort and Spa and Belfast city centre Europa Hotel. He began his career as a publican but founded his luxury hotel group in 1968 when he purchased the Stormont and Adair Arms hotels. Hastings Hotels is now the largest independent hotel group in Northern Ireland. One of the standout facts of the group's success is that Sir William was operating his hotels during 'the troubles' when no international hotel group was opening hotels and few tourists dared to visit the country due to the political unrest. Many of his hotels were bombed and destroyed and at one point the Slieve Donard hotel was nicknamed the 'Titanic' as it was feared it would sink the whole group! Ironically it is the only remaining hotel of the original six which operates as a hotel today. 

Sir William has now passed his General Manager reins onto his son Howard however he continues to oversee the group from the chairman's position. In 2009 he was awarded a knighthood from the Queen for services to tourism and to the community and holds an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Ulster and helped to establish their hospitality department.

2013 looks set to be an exciting year for Northern Ireland as it recently hosted the G8 who met at  Lough Erne Resort and Derry-Londonderry is the UK City of Culture for 2013 (something Sir William says he is very excited about).

One last thing - what is the significance of the Rubber Ducks?
They put a personality behind the hotels and have become iconic with Hastings Hotels. They are friendly little chaps, and are loved by all our visitors, whatever age! Celebrities love to sign the ducks for us and have their photos taken with them. They have evolved from a yellow rubber ducks to many different themed ducks, we have Titanic ducks, Giant's Causeway ducks, city of culture ducks, love ducks, St Patrick's Day ducks, Ulster Rugby ducks and Christmas quacker ducks. We have fun posting peoples photos on Facebook when they send us their ducks on holiday or in their place of work. This year we have a travelling duck who will travel via social media to all parts of Ireland in 2 months! That is our next duck challenge! We purchase 150,000 ducks every year!