Who pays for local tourist offices?

infactaniceone

hi all, i am wondering who pays people that work in tourist offices , i have a feeling we may have a beautiful quango that needs demolishing?

biko

West -> After Hours

Rabies

After Hours is not a West dumping ground

Oh wait... Hi Biko

OP, I think you're looking for the "I'm looking for a reason to moan about something" forum.

Max Power1

Rabies wrote: »

After Hours is not a West dumping ground

Oh wait... Hi Biko

OP, I think you're looking for the "I'm looking for a reason to moan about something" forum.

R&R ?

Rabies

Max Power1 wrote: »

R&R ?

Ladies Lounge

biko

Tourist offices forum?

orourkeda

Archaeology forum

FatherLen

infactaniceone wrote: »

who pays people that work in tourist offices

who keeps the metric system down?

biko

OP your answer is here
http://www.failteireland.ie/about

mconigol

infactaniceone wrote: »

hi all, i am wondering who pays people that work in tourist offices , i have a feeling we may have a beautiful quango that needs demolishing?

Why exactly? Aren't tourist offices useful?

Rabies

mconigol wrote: »

Why exactly? Aren't tourist offices useful?

Definitely. I've used them loads of times.
If you live in a country, you prob won't use them. But they're a great resource for tourists.

ejmaztec

Rabies wrote: »

Definitely. I've used them loads of times.
If you live in a country, you prob won't use them. But they're a great resource for tourists.

It's a pity that they can't afford to come here.

infactaniceone

mconigol wrote: »

Why exactly? Aren't tourist offices useful?

they are useful , dont get me wrong but when you type in the name of this particular one into google , they are there but only have 55 hours of activities up on set dates for the whole year when we have lakes mountains cycling kayaking fishing horseriding caving sailing swimming an agri show and many more, people rely on these peoples hard work to make a living and i feel they are not very interested, so jobs for the boys came to mind or otherwise they are not the people for the job i think

infactaniceone

ejmaztec wrote: »

It's a pity that they can't afford to come here.

true enough but recession to me means "work harder", if we provide quality they will come, ireland has the best surf in europe which is recession proof and surfers will surf for example

infactaniceone

Rabies wrote: »

Definitely. I've used them loads of times.
If you live in a country, you prob won't use them. But they're a great resource for tourists.

its a lot of responsibilty for tourist offices to be accessible as possible, we presume because we as locals dont have many dealings with them that they are working hard for the towns, when locals should be influencing them as to what the tourist wants and tourist offices can offer advice to local business as to what direction the office and local tourism committees etc are going in and be completely transparent and work as a team. one tourism unit working together

ejmaztec

infactaniceone wrote: »

true enough but recession to me means "work harder", if we provide quality they will come, ireland has the best surf in europe which is recession proof and surfers will surf for example

If we stop robbing tourists, they'll come. They don't like getting skinned alive.

infactaniceone

biko wrote: »

OP your answer is here
http://www.failteireland.ie/about

thanks biko, will check it out now, i do know that our town of 2000 people are not even mentioned on the failte ireland page yet our tourist office is linked to it, again thanks

dubbie82

I used to work in a tourist Information Office and it was very very busy with the tourists. Also workd in another office that wasn't exactly a tourist hub and many local people would call in looking for information on all sorts of things, there were the people who were new in the area and had not much of an idea what was on offer.

Not every office is funded by Failte Ireland by the way, I remember they cut some offices off the network a few years ago the whole rebranding and changes from Board Failte to Failte Ireland.

Other question, why would you want to close them? Sure destroy more workplaces a few hundred people more on the dole won't make any difference right?

infactaniceone

dubbie82 wrote: »

I used to work in a tourist Information Office and it was very very busy with the tourists. Also workd in another office that wasn't exactly a tourist hub and many local people would call in looking for information on all sorts of things, there were the people who were new in the area and had not much of an idea what was on offer.

Not every office is funded by Failte Ireland by the way, I remember they cut some offices off the network a few years ago the whole rebranding and changes from Board Failte to Failte Ireland.

Other question, why would you want to close them? Sure destroy more workplaces a few hundred people more on the dole won't make any difference right?

if the benefits of the tourist office outdo the costs of the office then absolutely keep it open , but do we really need 2 people working in an office over winter costing more than they are producing because i have never seen anyone walk into this one and i live beside it, if failte ireland dont employ them who does i wonder, the town is it somehow ? tx

dubbie82

Many offices are summer season only and they close during the winter. The offices used to have a good bit of retail as well, they get commision from it's accommodation booking service etc.
I know this appears wrong for many espcially during a recession but a tourist office does provide service same as the Citizens Information office for example. They are important in what they do and bring back the money in other ways.
Also they don't do information work only, for example the Dundalk Tourist office did a lot of the cross boarder work with Northern Ireland tourism.
Other tourist information office workers are involved with developing maps, and brochures, statistics etc. There is a lot more involved as just giving you driving direction to the next hotel.

infactaniceone

dubbie82 wrote: »

Many offices are summer season only and they close during the winter. The offices used to have a good bit of retail as well, they get commision from it's accommodation booking service etc.
I know this appears wrong for many espcially during a recession but a tourist office does provide service same as the Citizens Information office for example. They are important in what they do and bring back the money in other ways.
Also they don't do information work only, for example the Dundalk Tourist office did a lot of the cross boarder work with Northern Ireland tourism.
Other tourist information office workers are involved with developing maps, and brochures, statistics etc. There is a lot more involved as just giving you driving direction to the next hotel.

true true tx dubbie , i will do more research before i jump next time:)

mconigol

infactaniceone wrote: »

true true tx dubbie , i will do more research before i jump next time:)

:eek: Cmon OP where's the rage?!

ejmaztec

If FF get back in :pac:, they're going to increase the visitor numbers to 8 million by 2015.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0209/breaking34.html

The only way that anyone's going to manage this is if they take a leaf out of St Patrick's kidnappers' books and send boats to grab people from Wales, and the western coasts of Scotland and England.

This may be illegal, but who cares?

gamgsam

Hello,

In large tourist offices, many of the staff will be paid solely on commission from tour companies or specific attractions.

dubbie82

gamgsam can you be a bit more specific about where this is the common practice because I was not aware that this is the case in Ireland.