Why Ireland's so called 'Tourist Industry' is a joke

xavidub · 18-10-2010 01:23PM

We have a national inability to keep public access toilets clean. I have seen cleaner public toilets in Russia and Nepal than I do in Ireland. We don't even seem to understand why it's important.

keithclancy · 19-10-2010 03:54PM

xavidub wrote: »

We have a national inability to keep public access toilets clean. I have seen cleaner public toilets in Russia and Nepal than I do in Ireland. We don't even seem to understand why it's important.

Charge 50 cent to go to the Toilet, use it to pay someone to clean/watch over them and they'll improve.

AlekSmart · 19-10-2010 05:52PM

Charge 50 cent to go to the Toilet, use it to pay someone to clean/watch over them and they'll improve.

Sadly Keith,they will not.

A colleague of mine had a rather fragrant experience recently whilst operating a Bus in Dublin.

Having taken a group of young "ladies" on board earlier in the journey he was alerted by another passenger to some "messing" down the back of the bus upstairs.

Turns out to have been a communal urination by the "Ladies" before they headed of to a city centre nightspot.

The stench alone was enough for the Bus to be taken out of service and subject to a deep clean procedure....but of equal interest was the amount of empty "mineral" bottles left behind by the young "Ladies".

I`m afraid a 50c charge won`t alter the attitudes of these "Ladies" at all....however being identified and handed a bucket,mop and some strong smelling disinfectant might achieve some result,especially if their work was video recorded for posterity...and U-Tube !

Augmerson · 19-10-2010 07:54PM

It's sad stuff to hear and I do feel a little embarressed. We have an amazing heritage.

Let's just put the Germans in charge of everything. Atleast they are efficient.

Judgement Day · 23-10-2010 01:26PM

Dear

Thank you for your email, our Chief Executive responded to your email on 29 September and I am not sure why you did not receive it, apologies for this and please find copy of his reply below.

Thank you for your email and regret your unsatisfactory experience at the Fry Model Railway.

The toilets in the courtyard you refer to are public toilets and not under our control and are intended for use by all visitors to the Park. They have been closed for some time and consequently there is a big demand for the toilet facilities in the Castle.

There is a cleaner on duty all day Sunday in the Castle and the toilets are checked at regular intervals and time sheets on the back of the door are signed off accordingly. The toilet seat is being replaced today.

I agree that the Exhibition needs to be upgraded but we do not have the resources to do so in these difficult times and we are not in a position to appoint a manager as there is an embargo on recruiting new staff. However, we endeavour to provide a high level of service with the resources we do have and therefore am dismayed by the content of your letter.

We have opened in winter months in the past and our experience was very low visitor numbers and to open all year round would mean running the Attraction at a considerable loss. As it is we just about break even in the months that we are open.

Thank you again for taking the time to write to me.

Kind regards,

Frank Magee

Maria O'Callaghan
Sales Manager
Dublin Tourism Attractions
Malahide Castle
Malahide
County Dublin

keithclancy · 24-10-2010 09:16AM

AlekSmart wrote: »

Sadly Keith,they will not.

A colleague of mine had a rather fragrant experience recently whilst operating a Bus in Dublin.

Having taken a group of young "ladies" on board earlier in the journey he was alerted by another passenger to some "messing" down the back of the bus upstairs.

Turns out to have been a communal urination by the "Ladies" before they headed of to a city centre nightspot.

The stench alone was enough for the Bus to be taken out of service and subject to a deep clean procedure....but of equal interest was the amount of empty "mineral" bottles left behind by the young "Ladies".

I`m afraid a 50c charge won`t alter the attitudes of these "Ladies" at all....however being identified and handed a bucket,mop and some strong smelling disinfectant might achieve some result,especially if their work was video recorded for posterity...and U-Tube !

Christ almighty.

Seriously though, just pointing out that here in Holland and in Germany its normal to pay to use a toilet in a pub/restaurant and their usually always clean.

Absurdum · 24-10-2010 08:37PM

A lot of German motorway service areas charge 50c to use the bathroom, but they give you a voucher which can then be redeemed in-store. The auto-self-cleaning jacks are amazing too.

maninasia · 25-10-2010 03:28AM

keithclancy wrote: »

Christ almighty.

Seriously though, just pointing out that here in Holland and in Germany its normal to pay to use a toilet in a pub/restaurant and their usually always clean.

Yep, there is no point having a free but dirty facility one would not use. Better to pay a little if it is maintained properly.

flutered · 25-10-2010 08:30PM

what about a hotel that refuses c.c. cash or a cheque made out to the owner, also the staff paid cash in the hand.

Judgement Day · 25-10-2010 08:43PM

What about a recently opened 4 star hotel whose owners threatened their staff with dismissal if they joined a union? The same hotel where breakfast was cooked in the wee small hours of the morning and reheated at breakfast time and the uneaten sausages/rashers etc refrozen for the next morning. The hotel where food was frequently picked up off the kitchen floor and put back on plates. The hotel where mattresses that had been urinated on by drunk guests were not cleaned but left up against radiators until dry. Where fire exits were routinely blocked by laundry trollies. I could go on but I suspect that the four star hotel where I worked was/is far from unique in the Irish tourism product.

Rockery Woman · 25-10-2010 08:52PM

Judgement Day wrote: »

What about a recently opened 4 star hotel whose owners threatened their staff with dismissal if they joined a union? The same hotel where breakfast was cooked in the wee small hours of the morning and reheated at breakfast time and the uneaten sausages/rashers etc refrozen for the next morning. The hotel where food was frequently picked up off the kitchen floor and put back on plates. The hotel where mattresses that had been urinated on by drunk guests were not cleaned but left up against radiators until dry. Where fire exits were routinely blocked by laundry trollies. I could go on but I suspect that the four star hotel where I worked was/is far from unique in the Irish tourism product.

Thats disgusting! Did they not have waterproof covers on the mattresses? For Gods sake its 2010! People expect a good standard nowadays. If we cant compete with the rest of Europe in accomodation there is no hope for our flagging tourist industry.

I worked in a restaurant 15 years ago and similar things happened in the kitchen, food was regularly "recycled". Im surprised things like this are still commonplace Judgement Day but obviously its still happening!:mad:

kuntboy · 25-10-2010 10:04PM

Come on guys it's Ireland what did you expect? Professionalism? lol. We are the laughing stock of the world.

padrepio · 26-10-2010 05:31AM

Surely surfing should be marketed more heavily - it isnt weather dependent and we have serious natural resources for it. I always think somewhere like Shannon airport should subsidise the cost of hiring a car. Lets be honest buses etc are terrible. Having a car would encourage tourists to drive around the country more stopping off at several locations. The common complaint from tourists is the prohibitively and ridiculous cost of public transport. Can we not link in with some EU wide travel ticket thing?

The tourist industry in Ireland is poor value for money. We seem to attract frugal Europeans sharing glasses of Guinness on bus tours rather that promoting Ireland as an island to explore. There are some unreal sites in Ireland - was in Dun Aenghus last year in the Aran Island. It was a nice day granted but the scenery was breataking. We need to promote that more.

maninasia · 26-10-2010 12:17PM

Spot on. I have identified cycling holidays as huge potential for Ireland, just need to put in more cycle lanes on those disused railways. Marketing Ireland can only go so far, you've got to have good product to market though.

parsi · 26-10-2010 02:15PM

keithclancy wrote: »

Charge 50 cent to go to the Toilet, use it to pay someone to clean/watch over them and they'll improve.

My experience from years of holidaying in France is that the paid-for toilets are top-notch but the free ones are terribly hit-and-miss (judging by their state it was more often miss than hit).

Takes two important tourist centres- St Malo has many paid-for toilets which are of an extremely good standard, however in Roscoff they are free and show it.

bamboozle · 27-10-2010 09:15AM

maninasia wrote: »

Spot on. I have identified cycling holidays as huge potential for Ireland, just need to put in more cycle lanes on those disused railways. Marketing Ireland can only go so far, you've got to have good product to market though.

i've cycled all round ireland despite the many attempts by bus drivers everywhere to run me off the road with their idiotic driving. Ireland would be excellent for cycling holidays if your average irish driver paid the slightest bit of attention to cyclists & if tourists were able to transport bikes on all of our rail system, many routes dont all bikes.

maninasia · 27-10-2010 10:15AM

I'm aware of the issues also. It just points out to me that you've got to have the quality product there first before you market it. No use 2 or 3 tourist agencies promoting something that is not right in the first place.

oppenheimer1 · 27-10-2010 11:36AM

Judgement Day wrote: »

What about a recently opened 4 star hotel whose owners threatened their staff with dismissal if they joined a union? The same hotel where breakfast was cooked in the wee small hours of the morning and reheated at breakfast time and the uneaten sausages/rashers etc refrozen for the next morning. The hotel where food was frequently picked up off the kitchen floor and put back on plates. The hotel where mattresses that had been urinated on by drunk guests were not cleaned but left up against radiators until dry. Where fire exits were routinely blocked by laundry trollies. I could go on but I suspect that the four star hotel where I worked was/is far from unique in the Irish tourism product.

If you saw that then why don't you name it...

Judgement Day · 27-10-2010 11:44AM

oppenheimer1 wrote: »

If you saw that then why don't you name it...

I have to live in the locality and can easily be identified from my posts here. As I said I suspect my hotel was far from unique. In my experience a 'good' B+B offers a freshly cooked breakfast and a more personal/reliable service than a 'zombie' hotel. That said, in recent years I have stayed in a number of Irish B+Bs that also fail to reach an acceptable level. Our tourist industry is like so much else that's wrong with this country in that we believe our own PR and are under the illusion that we offer a wonderful product.

Judgement Day · 30-01-2011 10:50AM

It just gets worse! I haven't been able to verify this report: http://irishrailwaymodeller.yuku.com/topic/201/Fry-Model-Railway but based on my recent visits I'm not surprised. I will be on the case tomorrow and report back here. Something for people to ask the election candidates about? Only in Ireland! :mad:

This rather poor You Tube video is the only one available on the net which says something about the dire marketing of the museum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyiFK5nEKNk

Judgement Day · 31-01-2011 11:56AM

Just had confirmation from Dublin Tourism that the Fry Museum will NOT reopen at Malahide Castle due to Fingal County Council requiring the museum buildings for planned new 'developments'. :rolleyes:

InigoMontoya · 31-01-2011 05:36PM

MrMatisse wrote: »

We also dont have a really great tourist attraction, yeah there is the scenery but if your under 35 thats just boring, the adventure tourism which we do is poor in the main and aimed at the lower end of the market.

That's a huge generalisation. I know plenty of people my own age and younger (I'm 34), of various nationalities as well as Irish, who like nothing better than a couple of days in somewhere like West Cork or Connemara. Prefectly happy as long as there's a reasonably lively town or even a good local pub within reach.

katkin wrote: »

@ Really Stressed. You're right in one way- we don't have sun, sea or sand, and we don't have great shopping or cities, so all we have really is the scenery and our heritage and that's our selling point. If we could attract tourists interested in this type of thing great, and if they're older even better, they might spend more. People generally come to Ireland because they have roots here or for the "unspoiled" scenery and culture, so that needs preserving.

We have some fantastic beaches and coastal scenery. I was down in the Crookhaven area during the summer and (admittedly in perfect weather, which is not exactly guaranteed!) the beaches and sea were absolutely stunning. As padrepio pointed out, surfing, for example, is not weather reliant and places like Lahinch do very well from that market.

Our cities aren't that bad either, though obviously you can't compare them to some of the major international cities which are on a different scale. Improving some basic things like street cleanliness would greatly improve the impression people get while visiting.

Edit: basically I think we have a lot of things going for us in terms of attracting tourism and the bottleneck is other factors like bad value for money, shoddy facilities etc.

Judgement Day · 02-01-2012 03:37PM

Just heard somebody on the lunchtime news today, a consultant (Casey ?) talking about the huge amounts of money being squandered by Failte Ireland/Tourism Ireland to market Ireland compared to the amount spent by similar countries such as Scotland. Not only is Ireland spending far more but the return per € spent is a fraction of what is being achieved by other countries. There's a surprise. Failte Ireland makes FAS look good. Can't find a link to the piece - anybody?

n97 mini · 02-01-2012 04:07PM

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/our-tourism-share-plummets-in-spite-of-record-marketing-spend-2977309.html

ArmaniJeanss · 02-01-2012 04:10PM

Judgement Day wrote: »

Just heard somebody on the lunchtime news today, a consultant (Casey ?) talking about the huge amounts of money being squandered by Failte Ireland/Tourism Ireland to market Ireland compared to the amount spent by similar countries such as Scotland. Not only is Ireland spending far more but the return per € spent is a fraction of what is being achieved by other countries. There's a surprise. Failte Ireland makes FAS look good. Can't find a link to the piece - anybody?

Scotland is hardly that similar to Ireland though is it.
Its connected by rail and road to England with it's population of 50M (even if you only count the Northern counties of England for accessibility purposes its around 15M people).

Whilst we have to convince those same potential English tourists to get either a plane or a boat to come visit us, and to lose 2% of their money on currency transfers.

So whilst I don't know enough to be able to estimate whether Failte Ireland is doing a good job, I'd totally accept that they have to spend a higher amount on advertising and whatnot over and above Scottish Tourism to attract each visitor.

Tea drinker · 02-01-2012 09:03PM

the egg cup sized "glass" of fake Orange was always a turn off in irish B+B. I can't why others would find it something they needed to return to Ireland for.
Just simply mangy ould service from typical FF voters.

Overpriced "Hotel" developments by "Property Developers" need to have high prices and / or awful service, or close like a lot are doing.

parsi · 02-01-2012 10:22PM

Tea drinker wrote: »

the egg cup sized "glass" of fake Orange was always a turn off in irish B+B. I can't why others would find it something they needed to return to Ireland for.
Just simply mangy ould service from typical FF voters.

Overpriced "Hotel" developments by "Property Developers" need to have high prices and / or awful service, or close like a lot are doing.

Lol - we were only laughing about those glasses today. Also came across them in Scotland and even today they seem to be used in more "traditional" b&bs across these islands.

Service is certainly a stumbling block as is the innate desire to fleece you whilst you're captive rather than trying to inculcate a " we'll go back there attitude".

skafish · 03-01-2012 01:50AM

It seems to me that most of the state run tourist facilities in this country are, at best, over priced and poorly managed.
We do have huge potential in the areas of specialised tourism, mainly sport orientated eg golf (which I do not personally comit, but I am assured we have some great courses), diving (which I do know abit about, and can state we have stunning diving around the coast), fishing, shooting.
The most sucessful of these persuits are individuals who operate with little or no official support. IMO we need more of this sort of industry to attract tourists.
It also seems to me that there are a few people on this thread who have some good ideas, and maybe the necessary skills to make it work.???

saywhatyousee · 03-01-2012 05:12AM

Tea drinker wrote: »

the egg cup sized "glass" of fake Orange was always a turn off in irish B+B. I can't why others would find it something they needed to return to Ireland for.
Just simply mangy ould service from typical FF voters.

Overpriced "Hotel" developments by "Property Developers" need to have high prices and / or awful service, or close like a lot are doing.

I do not know what you are talking about hotel's in Ireland are extremely cheap and of good quality compared to those on mainland Europe.

meglome · 03-01-2012 08:22AM

saywhatyousee wrote: »

I do not know what you are talking about hotel's in Ireland are extremely cheap and of good quality compared to those on mainland Europe.

Spent a couple of weeks going round Ireland last 'summer' with some Americans. Hotels were priced fairly reasonably but there has been large falls in prices since the tiger kicked the bucket. But woe-betide if there's an event on in the area, the gouging begins. B&B's in the main were a horrible rip-off, €70 for two a night when you can get a hotel for that.

Tourist sites were often very expensive, It got to the point we'd go up to some places and look without going in as it was costing a fortune. Basically any site could cost €6 in. The Cliffs of Moher at €6 per person to park (though we just walked around the long way, €6 per person my arse). Powerscourt is €6 per person and the waterfall is €5.50 per person. So for four people that's €46 for an afternoon.

We have some great sights and I enjoyed the trip but many if not most are overpriced.

Why Ireland's so called 'Tourist Industry' is a joke

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