Irish Tourism

Raekwon

According to an article the Irish Times, Ireland has fallen again in the tourism rankings with poor public transport and high prices being the main turn-off's for foreign holiday makers.

This is on the back of Irish Tourist Industry Confederation's end of year review which estimate total number of overseas visits to Ireland this year is down by 1m on the figure for last year. The review estimates that 5.6m people travelled to Ireland in the last 12 months, which is a drop of 15% and the lowest level since 1998. In the last three years, annual revenue from overseas visitors have been declining steady and the figures for 2010 indicated an estimated lose of €4.6 billion.

Our poor transport infrastructure and uncompetitive prices are nothing new and obviously the global recession has played a major role in the down turn but is there anything we can do to get back on track?

I remember Fianna Fáil making a pre-election promise (:rolleyes:) to increase visitor numbers to Ireland by 8 million by 2015. They said their plan had the potential to create 15,000 jobs in the sector and also extend the ‘Section 481′ film investment relief in a bid to attract film makers to Ireland.

What strategy do you think our new government should adopt to stimulate our dwindling but potentially very lucrative tourism sector?

UsernameInUse

The Irish Times are avoiding the real issue here.

Tourism is not falling because of public transport, it's falling because Dublin is not a pleasurable or financially viable place to come for holiday makers. Too much regulation and tax on alcohol, government interfering with establishment owners having to close their venues at a certain time (nightclubs are not even a legal entity in Irish law), too much regulation of transport (have you seen the price of taxis lately?), hotels are charging like they're opposite the Eiffel Tower ect ect.

The problem is because of the Government. You limit government power and the people that come, won't even want to leave.

silverharp

give anyone who files a tax return 2 weeks free at a NAMA hotel, there are over 80 of them. Given that people have limited holidays there would be a big switch to domestic holidays. :pac:

dubbie82

Maybe we should finally learn to do something without the help of the government???

There are a few things that needs change, quick. We are a very small country but there is so much on offer here and maybe it's about time we do vaule it a bit more. I am tired of listening to Irish people moaning about how little there is to offer or to do here and we are quick to mock any new ventures.

We have to stop thinking that the Irish tourism only exists because of visitors from abroad. We rather go to a self catering tourist compound in cran canaria than actually look what's on offer here. Yes I do prices were and still are outrageous here but many tourism operations got the message. There are great deal to get for Irish Holidays.

Ireland was always the Ireland of the welcomes were visitors could have a chat with the locals, service in hotels and B&B was brilliant but we replaced this with cold efficienty during the boom.

We have to find a way to be a all year tourism destination. We still more or less think there won't be anyone visiting between october to april....this is 6 months of missing revenue! People do not visit Ireland for a sun holiday in the first place, they expect to get rain anyway so why not pushing the winter a bit more???

Tourism is something we messed up big time during the boom and it's time we sort it out. It's one of the very few constant industries we have and it's completely underrated here.

Phat Cat

dubbie82 wrote: »

Ireland was always the Ireland of the welcomes were visitors could have a chat with the locals, service in hotels and B&B was brilliant but we replaced this with cold efficienty during the boom.

This could be part of the problem. I was in America last year with my wife and we got chatting to an elderly couple with Irish roots who had visited Ireland a few times over the years. The husband was very blunt and he said that the last time he was there (2007) he felt that Ireland had lost most of the charm that made it so appealing. He said that getting served in traditional Irish pubs by migrant workers and having to ask people if they spoke English before asking for directions was a totally different experiences then what he was used too. He said he might aswell have been in France.

Okay be might have been an old bigot but he does have a point to a certain extent. IMO we have lost alot of our charm and identity and tourists would usually come to Ireland for to warm hospitality and friendly people. I'd say that are now only greeted by glum faces and rising prices to compliment the rain and awful transport infrastructure.

RichardAnd

Phat Cat wrote: »

This could be part of the problem. I was in America last year with my wife and we got chatting to an elderly couple with Irish roots who had visited Ireland a few times over the years. The husband was very blunt and he said that the last time he was there (2007) he felt that Ireland had lost most of the charm that made it so appealing. He said that getting served in traditional Irish pubs by migrant workers and having to ask people if they spoke English before asking for directions was a totally different experiences then what he was used too. He said he might aswell have been in France.

Okay be might have been an old bigot but he does have a point to a certain extent. IMO we have lost alot of our charm and identity and tourists would usually come to Ireland for to warm hospitality and friendly people. I'd say that are now only greeted by glum faces and rising prices to compliment the rain and awful transport infrastructure.

Yes, I've heard similar things. A few months ago, there was a raido show on about this and the loss of our "irishness" was comented on. One american buisness man mentioned that he traveled Ireland several years ago and in a small pub in Galway after ordering lunch, he was presented with a choice of chips, pizza. burgers and other crap when he wanted something like bacon and cabbage.

Now this is a little thing but it's a symptom of a larger problem. People don't come here to live as they do back home. They want to see farmers in straw hats wandering round the countryside shouting "top o' the mornin' to ye!" and see green hills whilst knocking back a guiness. What they get is a little slice of the USA where the only thing to remind them they're in Ireland is the level of drunks and accents. Bit of an exaggeration perhaps, but my point is true

danbohan

Phat Cat wrote: »

This could be part of the problem. I was in America last year with my wife and we got chatting to an elderly couple with Irish roots who had visited Ireland a few times over the years. The husband was very blunt and he said that the last time he was there (2007) he felt that Ireland had lost most of the charm that made it so appealing. He said that getting served in traditional Irish pubs by migrant workers and having to ask people if they spoke English before asking for directions was a totally different experiences then what he was used too. He said he might aswell have been in France.

Okay be might have been an old bigot but he does have a point to a certain extent. IMO we have lost alot of our charm and identity and tourists would usually come to Ireland for to warm hospitality and friendly people. I'd say that are now only greeted by glum faces and rising prices to compliment the rain and awful transport infrastructure.

i live part of the time in US and have heard your story been repeated time and time again ,americans visiting ireland knew they were going be ripped off but they would like it done with a bit of blarney not some east european monologue, as usual greedy irish hoteliers /bars/cafes etc shot themselves in the foot

dubbie82

It is true. It's a comment I hear frequently as a tour guide when staying in different hotels. The bigger and "corporate" the hotel is the worse the service gets.
So often the tour groups get served by one or two overworked waitresses who have absolutely no intention of doing that job, worthless putting down the food in front of you only to appear again to take the empty plates away from you. No smile, chewing gum in mouth etc.
And unfortunately I do have to agree that the foreing staff are the worst offenders in that case. I am foreign myself so I am not going around and make things like that up.

Also a lack of knowledge is another problem. The other day I walked down Grafton street and passed a group with a tour guide who told the group that Bewley's used to be a leper Hospital and later a soup kitchen in the famine:eek:
I frequently come across Hotel Receptionists who are not able to give you directions from the main road to the hotel, they are not aware about events that take place in the area and things like that.
It's a shame really but these small little things just paint a bigger picture that is just as much a reason why tourism isn't doing well as the expensive prices and other reasons.

mikemac

Worked in many hotels during the boom
One was a new startup and there was three of us Irish out of 17.

We had lots of tour groups of Americans seeing the country. So they'd do a few days in Galway with day trips to Conemara, then a few days in Kerry, Dublin, Belfast and so on.
Actually a pretty good holiday imo Might do it myself!

But yes, they'd comment on how few Irish staff they actually met.
The debates on immigration have been done countless times on boards. Just the tourists had expectations coming over to be served by a local isn't realy much of an ask but it didn't happen for a number of reasons

Pete_Cavan

From the new Programme for Government;

We will explore the possibility of a new agreement on visitor visas with the UK, offering tourists the opportunity to visit the UK and Ireland with one visa, at a reasonable cost to tap into the tourism market for significant events such as the forthcoming London 2012 Olympics.

I think this is an excellent idea.