Ear to the ground (kerryman charging people to view country side)

sh1tstirrer

Anyone watch this tonight? This cute Kerry hoor is making up to 20k a year from people who want to view this select part of Ireland.

Muckit

More power to him. That's what you call 'thinking outside the box!'

whelan1

did you see your woman tasting the raw pudding:eek:

Tora Bora

whelan1 wrote: »

did you see your woman tasting the raw pudding:eek:

Jeez, she swallowed them testicles whole:cool: I felt the pain myself:pac:

johngalway

20k, I'm suddenly very interested

Must see if it's on RTE player later.

whelan1

Tora Bora wrote: »

Jeez, she swallowed them testicles whole:cool: I felt the pain myself:pac:

did you notice how the testicles where alot bigger than the brain:D

snowman707

whelan1 wrote: »

did you notice how the testicles where alot bigger than the brain:D

Muckit

johngalway wrote: »

20k, I'm suddenly very interested

Must see if it's on RTE player later.

Could possibly be a runner for you alright John!;)

colrow

My missus has just got a little donkey cart, I'm tempted to take it and the donkey down to waterville and see if we can give donkey rides in the summer

johngalway

colrow wrote: »

My missus has just got a little donkey cart, I'm tempted to take it and the donkey down to waterville and see if we can give donkey rides in the summer

Find out about your local area, all the history etc. If you've local archaeologists or historians or even people who've written about the area, scour it all. Then you'll have an interesting, informative spiel for your customers as well as the scenery.

Tora Bora

johngalway wrote: »

Find out about your local area, all the history etc. If you've local archaeologists or historians or even people who've written about the area, scour it all. Then you'll have an interesting, informative spiel for your customers as well as the scenery.

No need in the world for any of that aul research nonsence. Just make up your own version of events:D Ten times more interesting, if you have a good enough imagination.

pakalasa

Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase - "You can't eat scenery"

johngalway

Tora Bora wrote: »

No need in the world for any of that aul research nonsence. Just make up your own version of events:D Ten times more interesting, if you have a good enough imagination.

Ah no, ya have to do those things right. You can be 100% sure the tourist will repeat what they've been told to a local shop/cafe/B&B/hotel and bang goes the reputation of the guide.

I was on a guide course here in Conamara, very interesting the things I learned from that

johngalway

pakalasa wrote: »

Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase - "You can't eat scenery"

I've a small farm in a beautiful area. Sometimes - OK a lot - I'm reminded by a certain family member of that. My response from day 1 has always been I can't eat it now can I!

sh1tstirrer

johngalway wrote: »

20k, I'm suddenly very interested

Must see if it's on RTE player later.

It cost 100k 50k after grant. He made 25k last year he spent 7k advertising and 1k resurfacing the walkways. Who would think that people would pay to view the scenery in kerry when it is all around you As Muckit said more power to him there are people willing to pay to view scenery and he is making an income from them.

Muckit

sh1tstirrer wrote: »

It cost 100k 50k after grant. He made 25k last year he spent 7k advertising and 1k resurfacing the walkways. Who would think that people would pay to view the scenery in kerry when it is all around you As Muckit said more power to him there are people willing to pay to view scenery and he is making an income from them.

We farmers (and indeed all Irish business people) need to start thinking outside the box if we want to earn a crust.

"Diversification" I think they call it

Seriously though, isn't it true, it's always the thing you take for granted yourself that somebody else will worship? You only have to look at the like of Ballygowan selling water for Christ's Sake! Would we or our parents ever have imagined it 20 years ago?

I know I've been harping on about it before in other threads, but mark my words our grass is one of our biggest natural commodities that we could and should be exploiting more.

The environment and cutting back on carbon emmisions is now one of the main focuses of world governments. They've started already as we know, putting levies and charges on water, eventually, in my opinion, ALL energy levels used on farms will need to be monitored and we'I be penalised accordingly. (ie. how much fertilizer we use, they'I have a calculation per tonne to find the total don't you know..:rolleyes: Also cattle/sheep rations etc etc.....)

What system stands out head and shoulders above the rest as being the most natural, has the least evironmental impact and lowest carbon footprint? Grass-based of course. Many countries don't have that luxury, we do. Ireland is in a potentially very favourable postion in this regard, we just need to highlight this fact to the rest of our world markets, it's low costing and it's health and environmental benefits.

There's already big debates raging regarding meat production and it's sustainability. It takes (don't hold me to it:rolleyes:) something like is it 4-6kg of cereal to produce 1 kg of beef? This cereal could be used instead to feed people directly!! We can't eat grass! So it makes sense to use it to produce meat which we can!..... Sorry about the rant.....:rolleyes:

johngalway

Halved & sliced testicles :eek: She looked like she was enjoying that way too much!

Fair play to her for making the black pudding, just watching it now, looks delicious.

Tourism bit was very interesting :cool:

Tora Bora

Muckit wrote: »

We farmers (and indeed all Irish business people) need to start thinking outside the box if we want to earn a crust.

"Diversification" I think they call it

Seriously though, isn't it true, it's always the thing you take for granted yourself that somebody else will worship? You only have to look at the like of Ballygowan selling water for Christ's Sake! Would we or our parents ever have imagined it 20 years ago?

I know I've been harping on about it before in other threads, but mark my words our grass is one of our biggest natural commodities that we could and should be exploiting more.

The environment and cutting back on carbon emmisions is now one of the main focuses of world governments. They've started already as we know, putting levies and charges on water, eventually, in my opinion, ALL energy levels used on farms will need to be monitored and we'I be penalised accordingly. (ie. how much fertilizer we use, they'I have a calculation per tonne to find the total don't you know..:rolleyes: Also cattle/sheep rations etc etc.....)

What system stands out head and shoulders above the rest as being the most natural, has the least evironmental impact and lowest carbon footprint? Grass-based of course. Many countries don't have that luxury, we do. Ireland is in a potentially very favourable postion in this regard, we just need to highlight this fact to the rest of our world markets, it's low costing and it's health and environmental benefits.

There's already big debates raging regarding meat production and it's sustainability. It takes (don't hold me to it:rolleyes:) something like is it 4-6kg of cereal to produce 1 kg of beef? This cereal could be used instead to feed people directly!! We can't eat grass! So it makes sense to use it to produce meat which we can!..... Sorry about the rant.....:rolleyes:

Shure we can manage like this! Only some fcuking busybody with a clip board would be out taking methane measurements from the horses ars e:P

5live

Tora Bora wrote: »

Shure we can manage like this! Only some fcuking busybody with a clip board would be out taking methane measurements from the horses ars e:P

Thats not how it works Tora. YOU will be taking the measurements from the horse, filling out the 15 page report in triplicate, posting one to Dept, one to council and keeping one for 75 years for inspection. Oh and filling in your supervisors clipboard for him in case he suffers from repedetive strain injury.:cool:

Muckit

Ah those were the days!:D

Bureaucracy and paperwork is all we have now.... Sure where would we be without them:D (probably alot further:rolleyes:)

fastrac

I was very interested in the statistic that Ireland produces 1/1000th of the worlds milk supply yet makes 15% of the worlds baby milk powder.

whelan1

Muckit wrote: »

Ah those were the days!:D

Bureaucracy and paperwork is all we have now.... Sure where would we be without them:D (probably alot further:rolleyes:)

that reminds me , i think i got another of those farm survey thingys a few weeks ago.... must fill it in

johngalway

whelan1 wrote: »

that reminds me , i think i got another of those farm survey thingys a few weeks ago.... must fill it in

Just keep in mind the poor oppressed civil servant you're keeping in a job while filling it in

Omnipresence

pakalasa wrote: »

Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase - "You can't eat scenery"

I grew up in Valentia and have paid to go to Geokaun - trust me the views are a bit more than special...

Skellings, Blaskets, Iveragh, etc.. breathtaking

Fair play to him...

whelan1

tbh he is not charging a fortune , could be charging 10 euro a car easy

bbam

You have to admire him for taking the chance, the scenery was great and the facilities looked spot on, exactly the sort of attraction I'd pay for myself..

Pity nobody will pay to see our rushes here in Cavan, and we've spent years perfecting the crop

5live

bbam wrote: »

Pity nobody will pay to see our rushes here in Cavan, and we've spent years perfecting the crop

St Bridgets crosses!!! And keeps you busy and out of trouble during winter:D

colrow

See f i can post apic of the donkey cart nd see wot u think

Daisy!

Charging for scenery?! A Kerryman could only think that up! :rolleyes:

sh1tstirrer

colrow wrote: »

See f i can post apic of the donkey cart nd see wot u think

You could charge €2/child for a 5 min trek that equals €6 every 6-10 minutes. Better still if you took the donkey and cart to the beach in ballybunnion on hot summer days you would make a fortune. From 12pm to 6pm you could make anything from €200/€360 in a day.

blue5000

wouldn't think there was much to see there today!

Tora Bora

blue5000 wrote: »

wouldn't think there was much to see there today!

Not even Sam McGuire:D

Muckit

sh1tstirrer wrote: »

You could charge €2/child for a 5 min trek that equals €6 every 6-10 minutes. Better still if you took the donkey and cart to the beach in ballybunnion on hot summer days you would make a fortune. From 12pm to 6pm you could make anything from €200/€360 in a day.

I can just see it now..... 'ah look how cute...... the donkey and 3asses'

Only Joking! There's definitely a money making mini venture there.
It has the novelty factor and there's very little outlay. It might be the only way to make a few pound from them at the moment. One went for €7 up our way at a local GAA fundraiser....

jonnybravo

If you seen the amount of people in NZ that pay to go do walks through their National Parks you could see how this would have huge potential in Ireland for Tourism. NZ even have a lonely planet just dedicated to walking in its national parks.

I have seen that they just opened a new 40km+ walking track in the Dublin Mountains. Hope they continue to develop new tracks. Could be huge potential in a lot of the scenic areas in Ireland.

Sam Kade

jonnybravo wrote: »

If you seen the amount of people in NZ that pay to go do walks through their National Parks you could see how this would have huge potential in Ireland for Tourism. NZ even have a lonely planet just dedicated to walking in its national parks.

I have seen that they just opened a new 40km+ walking track in the Dublin Mountains. Hope they continue to develop new tracks. Could be huge potential in a lot of the scenic areas in Ireland.

They are already charging for the cliffs of Moher. Personally I would not be in favour of charging people to walk on or look at the countryside :mad:

nilhg

Sam Kade wrote: »

They are already charging for the cliffs of Moher. Personally I would not be in favour of charging people to walk on or look at the countryside :mad:

I hope people wouldn't be that crude about it, look at this,

http://www.connemaralight.com/

I don't know the person who runs the courses but he's adding value to the basic attraction of his area, pubs, restaurants and accommodation providers also benefit but all of them would have nothing without the landscape and the local farmers who maintain it, the challenge is to get a fair return back to these guys.

It doesn't have to be as intricate as the courses I linked to above though, our photo club were in Leenane for a weekend recently, it didn't arise because we didn't know where to look for someone but I know we would have been happy to pay for a few hours of someone's time and access to some local contacts, even if it was to know where we might be straying on to private property where we wouldn't be wanted.

Dozer1

Around us we have this http://www.southerntrail.net/index.htm, they cleared some of the old railway lines and resurfaced them. Nothing very scenic about it as 99% of the way there are 10 ft high ditches on both sides so you can't even see into the fields. I have land near a few parts of it as far as I can see its rarely used.

When I compare it to the mountain trails in the ballyhoura trails http://www.ballyhouramtb.com there is no comparison and its only a few euros for parking.

What that guy had was worth the money as you really had something to look at and appreciate.

Muckit

I heard this moring on Today Fm that Frommer's (The travel Guide book people) did a survey recently and Ireland was chosen by their readers as the number one place they would like to visit in 2011.

Whether that actually plays out to be true or not, we'I have to wait and see;) Hopefully if/when it does we don't scare them away with our prices!!

Get training that donkey!! And go buy a few more!!!! :D:D

johngalway

The thing you don't want to be doing if you're to be involved in the Irish Tourist industry is provide accommodation. Place is saturated with B&B's and hotels. Providing something to do, or something to see, that's entirely different and it's where the action is IMO.

BeeDI

Muckit wrote: »

I heard this moring on Today Fm that Frommer's (The travel Guide book people) did a survey recently and Ireland was chosen by their readers as the number one place they would like to visit in 2011.

Whether that actually plays out to be true or not, we'I have to wait and see;) Hopefully if/when it does we don't scare them away with our prices!!

Get training that donkey!! And go buy a few more!!!! :D:D

Somebody should tell Mick O Leary that. He's cutting flights from Irish airports like crazy. Blames the €10 travel tax.

5live

BeeDI wrote: »

Somebody should tell Mick O Leary that. He's cutting flights from Irish airports like crazy. Blames the €10 travel tax.

Maybe he is afraid of cork radio presenters taking ryanair flights and delaying turn around times:D

jonnybravo

Sam Kade wrote: »

They are already charging for the cliffs of Moher. Personally I would not be in favour of charging people to walk on or look at the countryside :mad:

I wouldn't be advocating charging for just looking at our countryside but I would advocate charging a small fee to fund development of long walking tracks like the ones in the Dublin Mountains. With proper facilities and promotion this could become a major Tourist attraction in Ireland.

Muckit

BeeDI wrote: »

Somebody should tell Mick O Leary that. He's cutting flights from Irish airports like crazy. Blames the €10 travel tax.

Paying that €10 tax just to enter the country is ridiculous!:mad: How are we to try encourage people in with it??

it's givinfg incentives we should be, not 'penalties'

Instead why not give tourists to Ireland small concessions, like free parking in our towns that have paid parking, discounts in our restaurants, etc etc.

We have the empty hotels, surely it's a no brainer to try fill them, even at a discount? It'I at least create jobs or at worst help retain them...