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Spike Island is Europe's leading tourist attraction.

kurtainsider

How can this be?

https://www.rte.ie/news/munster/2017/1001/908817-spike-island-named-europes-leading-tourist-attraction/

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JupiterKid

So Spike Island is now more popular than The Eiffel Tower, The Alps, Amsterdam, The Colesseum, The Vatican, The Tower of London, etc?

Someone's on a lot of LSD. Or Coke. Or both...

the_syco

JupiterKid wrote: »

So Spike Island is now more popular than The Eiffel Tower, The Alps, Amsterdam, The Colesseum, The Vatican, The Tower of London, etc?

How many of the above places count the amount of people going to it?

RocketRaccoon

What is with the begrudgery in this place? Who cares how it was judged? Can we not just be glad that a genuine top class tourist attraction in Ireland has won the award?

Wardling

kurtainsider wrote:

How can this be?

Cobh is a destination for a lot of cruise ships now. Plenty people are bussed out to cashel or some other surrounding attractions but I'm guessing a fair share visit the island.

[Deleted User]

RocketRaccoon wrote: »

What is with the begrudgery in this place? Who cares how it was judged? Can we not just be glad that a genuine top class tourist attraction in Ireland has won the award?

Yes.

It's begrudgery. Anyone questioning it obviously seethes about Spike Island, hates it when it does well.

Ash.J.Williams

Mountainsandh wrote: »

Maybe it's because visits there have "only just" started, so proportionally they have an influx of visitors that went from zero to hero (in comparison to other places that are established longer) ?
I've never been, but it's on the list.

i heard it's amazing

whisky_galore

Uosdwis R. Dewoh wrote: »

The whole garrison town thing. Whereas e.g. Kinsale and Clonakilty are as pretty inside and outside.

LoL.
"Garrison town"...how long are the British gone from it now? Why not blame the nasty ould Brits for the shortcomings of the locals?

And FYI Kinsale was also a "Garrison town" and it was as rough as a badger's ar*e before the whole gourmet food thing and gentrification.

Kermit.de.frog

wakka12 wrote: »

I know Id be spending my money in the mainland over ireland if I were them

The mainland being Europe? Only "mainland" is Ireland here.

grogi

bear1 wrote: »

So it has had so far 45k people this year which from the sounds of it is more than the amount of people who went to the colosseum..
Yeah nothing weird about that at all.

The Collosseum (in Rome - if that's what you are referring to) attracts 4 mln visitors a year.

I don't think is about absolute numbers, Tesco Wilton sees more visitors than 45k and it didn't win.

CeilingFly

wakka12 wrote: »

Im always shocked by the numbers of tourists we get in ireland. I mean it has some nice sites and its a lovely place to visit. But I cant at all see what we have over continental europe or GB. I think Scotland and England have everything you want to see here but better and more of it..nice scenery lakes pubs cute towns and historical cities and churches and castles etc
Especially given how much it costs for north americans and asians ot travel all the way to europe in the first place. I know Id be spending my money in the mainland over ireland if I were them

One thing Ireland has more than enough of are whining naysayers that never ever see anything good.

I wsih those people would fcuk off and emigrate.

grogi

CeilingFly wrote: »

One thing Ireland has more than enough of are whining naysayers that never ever see anything good.

I wsih those people would fcuk off and emigrate.

I've immigrated to Ireland - and share the same sentiment.

It really helps to have a bit of perspective and try to be objective. It prevents people from getting trapped in a bubble and allows to make things better. There are good things and bad things in this country, but it will be much better if everyone knows what the bad stuff is.

Balmed Out

There would hardly be an annual award if it were simply the best, we would just hand it to the vatican or somewhere each year same place. The award is for whatever industry professionals deem to be best managed during the year. Size, visitor numbers etc are irrelevant.
Cobh itself has come on leaps and bounds in recent years. It was very rough but has so much potential and looks to become similar to what a Dun Laoighre is to Dublin.
As for the comment that Clonakilty is a tourist trap ha, ha. I wouldnt even consider it touristy having lived here for 7 years. Its not like a Kinsale, Killorglin, kenmare, Killarney etc. It gets some tourists but most pubs will have more locals then tourists and there isnt a paddywhakery shop in sight.

elperello

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Well I wouldn't go that far just now.
Let's just say that it is slightly concerning that this is our third year in a row winning this title.
TItanic Centre won in 2016 and Guinness Storehouse in 2015.
All are very nice attractions but before I rush to pull on the green Jersey I'd like to know more about this competition.
For instance they voted Aeroflot as Europe's leading airline brand.

whisky_galore

elperello wrote: »

Guinness Storehouse

Must be the only brewery tour in the world where you can't access the factory floor. There was a time you could do just that.. would be far more interesting than an overpriced tour of the storehouse.

guinness-visitors-train-1928.jpg?resize=474%2C257

guinness-visitors-train-1928.jpg?resize=474%2C257

Hector Savage

fiddling the stats

Del.Monte

CeilingFly wrote: »

One thing Ireland has more than enough of are whining naysayers that never ever see anything good.

I wsih those people would fcuk off and emigrate.

Is that you Bertie? :rolleyes:

kurtainsider

A lot of people are discussing the merits of Spike Island in comparison to Kinsale, Cobh, Blarney etc.

It may hold its own against these places. However, it won a completion where it was pitted against the Eiffel tower, the Colosseum, the Sagrada Familia, Buckingham Palace, the Acropolis.....

Now no disrespect to Spike Island but come on - in fairness.

elperello

https://www.worldtravelawards.com/
Have a look at the web site.

There are about 117 different categories for Europe alone. They also cover other regions.

It's a London based outfit trading since 1993.

Strange thing is there are no staff/management names attached.

the_syco

kurtainsider wrote: »

How can this be?

https://www.rte.ie/news/munster/2017/1001/908817-spike-island-named-europes-leading-tourist-attraction/

Is this a eurovision type thing that the winner has to host the next years one?

_Dara_

bear1 wrote: »

No offence but that's a pretty ignorant post.
Cliffs of moher, Connemara, Kerry, Killarney, Donegal, the beaches along the West coast (surfers come here from all over for the waves) book of kells, Wicklow, Achill island, cruise along the Shannon, giants causeway, island where star wars was shot, Blarney, Clonmel, Waterford, Galway, parts of Dublin, the lakes in fermanagh.
Honestly... we've got a lot to offer.
The only downside is the weather.

Don’t think it’s ignorant at all. You could make that list and more for any of the countries he mentioned. And some of them have much better weather.

For me, the Cliffs of Moher aren’t all that for example. I’ve seen cliffs in Cornwall and the south coast of England to trounce them.

[Deleted User]

_Dara_ wrote: »

Don’t think it’s ignorant at all. You could make that list and more for any of the countries he mentioned. And some of them have much better weather.

For me, the Cliffs of Moher aren’t all that for example. I’ve seen cliffs in Cornwall and the south coast of England to trounce them.

I just read his list.

He slipped Clonmel and Blarney in there! I think he may have been trying to take the proverbial.

_Dara_

Deleted User wrote: »

I just read his list.

He slipped Clonmel and Blarney in there! I think he may have been trying to take the proverbial.

Don’t get me wrong, I like being an Irish person and there are some beautiful places. But I do struggle to understand why so many people come here. I’m just back from Iceland. It lives up to the hype and though it has a lot in common with Ireland, it has this weirdness that elevates it. It’s also much more unspoiled that Ireland. Ireland is very nice but is not really unique (the UK has a lot of similar geography with the bonus that the south and south east of the country are genuinely quite warm in the summer. I got athlete’s foot for the first time in my life the first summer I lived there, it was that much warmer) and is also quite uniform in its landscape. Other countries have so much variety within their borders. Even the UK has much, much more woodland which really surprised me. It’s a much more built up country but yet between the built up areas, there are trees galore. The most unique things in Ireland are the likes of Glendalough - very cool but would I travel thousands of miles to see snippets of ancient Irish architecture? Probably not!

And you could be quite easily rained upon for your entire holiday in Ireland. That would just be depressing.

denismc

Shur, its in Cork boi, why wouldn't they love it.

_Dara_

My favorite place to go in Cork City is the Shandon Bells. A fiver in, you get to ring the bells, climb right up past the bell (bit of acrobatics involved) and out onto the viewing platform at the top. I’ve heard people say that the bell-ringing must be annoying for local residents but I lived right beside there during a summer season and they never bothered me. I barely noticed actually.

Uosdwis R. Dewoh

whisky_galore wrote: »

LoL.
"Garrison town"...how long are the British gone from it now? Why not blame the nasty ould Brits for the shortcomings of the locals?

And FYI Kinsale was also a "Garrison town" and it was as rough as a badger's ar*e before the whole gourmet food thing and gentrification.

Apologies for the error - although I think you could have made your point without the snark! As for blaming the Brits - no idea where that came from, but think it if you must.

AlanG

It sounds like a great attraction but its amazing that three different Irish attractions have won this award in the last three years (Guinness and Titanic Belfast also). One is reminded of A Nation once again winning the Worlds Favourite Song competition on the BBC.

Rubberchikken

Spike island is good but hardly deserves the title of best tourist thing in Europe.
There are way too many places that are much better. Probably just me that thinks that&#55357;&#56898;

Uosdwis R. Dewoh

Yeah it's strange all right. Maybe it's in the context of new attraction?

server down

Deleted User wrote: »

I just read his list.

He slipped Clonmel and Blarney in there! I think he may have been trying to take the proverbial.

I'd prefer Clonmel to most inland towns, but I like old norman towns in ireland.

server down

_Dara_ wrote: »

Don’t get me wrong, I like being an Irish person and there are some beautiful places. But I do struggle to understand why so many people come here. I’m just back from Iceland. It lives up to the hype and though it has a lot in common with Ireland, it has this weirdness that elevates it. It’s also much more unspoiled that Ireland. Ireland is very nice but is not really unique (the UK has a lot of similar geography with the bonus that the south and south east of the country are genuinely quite warm in the summer. I got athlete’s foot for the first time in my life the first summer I lived there, it was that much warmer) and is also quite uniform in its landscape. Other countries have so much variety within their borders. Even the UK has much, much more woodland which really surprised me. It’s a much more built up country but yet between the built up areas, there are trees galore. The most unique things in Ireland are the likes of Glendalough - very cool but would I travel thousands of miles to see snippets of ancient Irish architecture? Probably not!

And you could be quite easily rained upon for your entire holiday in Ireland. That would just be depressing.

The main answer to your question is in fact Ireland is not the top tourist destination in Europe or the world in terms of the numbers who come here. Not in the top 25. We get 8-9 M people. Britain gets about 35M.

Of course relative to population we get more, so it looks like we have boat loads of tourists, but a country's population size isnt really a determinant of most tourism -- people visiting relatives aside.

France gets about 80M. Germany about the same as the UK. Italy about 50M. The US gets 70M tourists a year.

Even if you stick to Europe the percentage coming to Ireland isnt that significant relative to the total number of people who are tourists to and within Europe.

I would say that that is a justified difference. However that does not mean that Ireland has nothing to offer, in terms of its size it has a lot to offer and is very compact. I doubt that that many tourists do all of Britain for instance -- its a visit to Scotland, or England, or individual cities.

Ireland is more so taken as a whole, and as that it is a pretty good "product".