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

Maura74

Head The Wall wrote: »

The manners and service in USA is miles ahead of what I have experienced in Ireland. Have you lived elsewhere to do a valid comparison?

Generally the service I have encountered in Ireland is slow, disinterested, ignorant and resentful.

London where I live is much worse than Ireland for being disinterested, ignorant and resentful.

Ireland discriminates again the Irish pensioners in UK except for NI as pensioners living in NI can get free passes to transport to the South Ireland but Irish pensioners living elsewhere in the UK cannot get this service. I mean Irish people with Irish passports.

200yrolecrank

Head The Wall wrote: »

The manners and service in USA is miles ahead of what I have experienced in Ireland. Have you lived elsewhere to do a valid comparison?

Generally the service I have encountered in Ireland is slow, disinterested, ignorant and resentful.

Unfortunately your right,
I actually really enjoy the service in America,even the lady in a diner who has been working the late shift for 20yrs manages to crack a joke or is positive about her job.
Here service has taken a nose dive in the past 15 years,I have seen the younger generation at work say the 18-21 year old`s and they are for the most part useless.
No initiative,lazy and with a careless attitude to their work.
A second factor is that a lot of our front-line customer service is staffed with eastern Europeans who just come across as dour but this is just their demeanor and they tend to not overly smile as it it not in their custom.
Thirdly we have a tendency in this country to think that we are owed masses of tourists because of our natural scenery and rolling hills and this leads to an arrogance to tourism.
The media and our politicians make great reference that we are not like Portugal financially or economically,I have been fortunate to visit portugal and we could learn a hell of a lot from them.
Portugal has a tourism industry that is probably 3 decades ahead of Ireland,they have great infrastructure and road networks.
A country that is sign posted correctly,amazing walkways to each beach,ample free parking.
Manicured parks,affordable dining,examples being we were getting latte coffees in Lisbon for 1.30,1 euro in the beach resorts.A small beer cost .80 cent in a local bar/cafe,the choice of food was fresh seafood with a 3 course meal under 14 euro including a drink.Our flights/hotel/car hire for 7 days was 640 euro including free breackfast each morning.

If I had gone for the weeks holiday to Co.kerry or Galway,that latte would have cost us a minimum of 2-3 euro,a small beer would be 3 euro,a 3 course seafood dinner anything from 35 euro upwards.A week in a coutry cottage minimum 700 euro and your definitely not guaranteed fine weather.

screamer

We must have been in different parts of the states, having been there several times, I have never experienced decent, timely service anywhere... slow is too fast to describe how long they take, and with a nice fake "have a nice day", yeah, whatever, just hurry up, I haven't got all day like you to stand here waiting.....

Oddjob

200yrolecrank wrote: »

Unfortunately your right,
I actually really enjoy the service in America,even the lady in a diner who has been working the late shift for 20yrs manages to crack a joke or is positive about her job.
Here service has taken a nose dive in the past 15 years,I have seen the younger generation at work say the 18-21 year old`s and they are for the most part useless.
No initiative,lazy and with a careless attitude to their work.
A second factor is that a lot of our front-line customer service is staffed with eastern Europeans who just come across as dour but this is just their demeanor and they tend to not overly smile as it it not in their custom.
Thirdly we have a tendency in this country to think that we are owed masses of tourists because of our natural scenery and rolling hills and this leads to an arrogance to tourism.
The media and our politicians make great reference that we are not like Portugal financially or economically,I have been fortunate to visit portugal and we could learn a hell of a lot from them.
Portugal has a tourism industry that is probably 3 decades ahead of Ireland,they have great infrastructure and road networks.
A country that is sign posted correctly,amazing walkways to each beach,ample free parking.
Manicured parks,affordable dining,examples being we were getting latte coffees in Lisbon for 1.30,1 euro in the beach resorts.A small beer cost .80 cent in a local bar/cafe,the choice of food was fresh seafood with a 3 course meal under 14 euro including a drink.Our flights/hotel/car hire for 7 days was 640 euro including free breackfast each morning.

If I had gone for the weeks holiday to Co.kerry or Galway,that latte would have cost us a minimum of 2-3 euro,a small beer would be 3 euro,a 3 course seafood dinner anything from 35 euro upwards.A week in a coutry cottage minimum 700 euro and your definitely not guaranteed fine weather.

If we dropped the minimum wage in Ireland to about €3 an hour, then you could probably get a latte for a €1.

And if we dropped the average wage by 66%, then we could compete with Portugal.

You volunteer to be the first and tell us how you get on.

AlekSmart

Maura74 wrote: »

London where I live is much worse than Ireland for being disinterested, ignorant and resentful.

Ireland discriminates again the Irish pensioners in UK except for NI as pensioners living in NI can get free passes to transport to the South Ireland but Irish pensioners living elsewhere in the UK cannot get this service. I mean Irish people with Irish passports.

Quid pro Quo Maura,no discrimination at all in this case.

NI pensioners living in NI get free 32 county travel.

RoI Pensioners living in the RoI get free 32 county travel

The entire area of "Free" Public Transport for pensioners within the UK is currently somewhat problematic,as Local Authorities struggle to meet Central Government dictats without any additional funding to finance the scheme.

Added to this is that in the UK,the universal entitlement to Free Travel usually refers to a Bus Pass,rather than the Irish definition which can stretch to Helicopter Journeys subject to resedential status.

No discrimination here,i'm afraid.

mistermouse

In fairness, Irish people in general, during the boom were either one of two things when it came to dealing with staff and businesses, both retail or service industry

1. very obnoxious and full of their own self importance, treating staff poorly

or

2. never complained when they should and became very much a throw away culture, splashing money around but not caring too much for quality or many were too meek to complain

Businesses had it too good and got complacent with both types of customer and let service slide

Ireland has lost its appeal to the natives never mind ruining everything it had that attracted foreigners

Small family businesses that did care about customer service find it very hard to stay afloat and the government are still not doing enough to promote small business and make self employment etc worth while

Tax schemes to favour over investment in hotels really has had a poor bearing on our tourism product

MadsL

screamer wrote: »

We must have been in different parts of the states, having been there several times, I have never experienced decent, timely service anywhere... slow is too fast to describe how long they take, and with a nice fake "have a nice day", yeah, whatever, just hurry up, I haven't got all day like you to stand here waiting.....

I suspect the problem may be with you in that case. The 'yeah, whatever' kind of gives it away.

Curly Judge

Getting back to the Irish Tourist Board - or whatever they are calling themselves these days.
Would some smart poster be able to work out the total cost to the exchequer of the above outfit, and divide that figure by the number of genuine first time tourists who have come here in recent years?
This would give us the cost per head of attracting these people here.
Please exclude people like my sister-in -law, who has been coming here twice a year for the past 30 years to visit the mother she loves, and would continue to do so even if Twink or Aengus Ó Snodaigh was head of the Irish Tourist Board.

old hippy

The servive back home and here in London is abysmal at the best of times.

The service I most commend is in the US and Japan. No contest.

200yrolecrank

I have to agree,the service here does not and cannot compete with Japan or the states.
Go to the far east,Thailand or Hong Kong and even their basic 3 star hotel would put a so called 5 star to shame here on the service front.

Solair

avalon68 wrote: »

Well, whatever about attracting tourists to the country - how about catering to them while they are there. I was back from the states over christmas, and as per usual I dont carry large amounts of cash - I topped up my credit card before traveling. What did I find on arrival? My card doesn't have a chip and pin system (major american bank, so I assume this is not a unique situation!) - only a fraction of the shops I tried to use the card in would accept it! I mean in this day and age how can a visa card not be accepted. I had to resort to withdrawing cash from the atm and thus incurring fees. Seriously, this is something very basic which shouldnt pose a problem. I should note problems arose in towns outside cities mainly - I had no problems in Dublin city.

That's lack of staff training / lack of adequate information about the situation from the banks. They cannot accept a chip card (European bank issued card) by swiping them as it defeats the security and the bank will hold them liable for fraud should the card be a fake. But, if you're from a country that has more primitive banking technology such as the United States, then they can accept your magstripe card and it works as normal.
They could also opt to ask you for ID before putting the transaction through if they were that worried about the card.

The same problem occurs all over Europe though. US cards are basically incompatible with European POS systems. E.g. there are plenty of vending machines / ticket machines etc that cannot process non-chipped cards.

screamer

I suspect the problem may be with you in that case

as you don't know me, don't assume to know me either. My experience, is my experience, those levels of slow, even lethargic service, wouldn't last in any sector here, especially not retail, it takes them as long to ring up a basket full there as a trolley load here, they've a lot to learn in terms of productivity.

avalon68

screamer wrote: »

as you don't know me, don't assume to know me either. My experience, is my experience, those levels of slow, even lethargic service, wouldn't last in any sector here, especially not retail, it takes them as long to ring up a basket full there as a trolley load here, they've a lot to learn in terms of productivity.

I'm quite happy to wait while they carefully pack my groceries etc. last time I was in aldi in Ireland the register person was practically throwing the food at me! The worst thing - my elderly mother was all flustered, thinking she was in the wrong for not being fast enough trying to load stuff into a bag. Pure ignorance. I find the customer service in the states far superior than Ireland, with the exception of a few places in new York, where basically they don't care as they will never be short of paying customers. If I ever have questions about any product or service I never get fobbed off, you actually feel like t hey value your custom.

Farmer Pudsey

Recently went on a weekend away to Waterford visited Mountmellick Abbey on the way. No entrance fee had a nice walk around the place went inside the church and looked at the way it was build etc, they have a nice little interpertive center tell you the history and a film you can start yourself as it was very quite and explains about the Cistercians and Mountmellick

On the way home we went to see the Rock of Cashel paid 12 euro for the two of us went in what a waste of money no tablets explaining about the Rock and it history half of it is blocked off and the film was a disgrace gave a general Irish history story no explaination about the Rock or its History. It is badly run by the OPW and bad value

Also I have passed it often over the last few years there is Scaffolding around it and inside for 3-4 years I had a look at the scaffolding inside it looks as if the setup is unused I love to have the rental contract on it it must be paid for 4-5 times

On the other hand Clonmacnoise is quite well run by the OPW a much more intresting experience good explantory film and a good interpertive centre

Unless Government bodied in the tourist sector get there act togeather we will keep going down hill

ravecave

Ireland has lots of tourist attractions

old hippy

ravecave wrote: »

Ireland has lots of tourist attractions

She may well have but it's all in the presentation, utilisation and execution.

Solair

I'd agree with that.

There are too many tourist sites that look like they haven't been upgraded since the 1950s.

We don't take these things nearly seriously enough and the presentation is extremely patchy. Some are great, others are shockingly poorly presented.

I found bringing tourists around the Shandon & Buttermarket area of Cork recently, frankly embarrassing.

Shandon, is clearly run by the Church of Ireland, without any money. Yet, it's one of Cork's main landmark tourism sites. It desperately needs to be upgraded. The whole thing is just in a relatively poor state of repair and it's not very accessible either to anyone who isn't fully mobile and fit!

Meanwhile, the Butter Market is like something a secondary school did as a project. It's vaguely interesting, but it's extremely poorly presented and quite boring. It's not to say that the staff aren't nice or that they aren't making a huge effort. It's simply not the kind of material that has any interest to someone who isn't from Cork, or maybe the rest of Ireland (at a push!)

They need to get focus groups to actually go and try out these tourism sites and suggest improvements. Many of them are just running without any kind of idea of how they are interpreted by tourists.

Opening up "greenways", and cycle ways and all those kinds of things to make the countryside and scenery accessible would be far more useful than spending huge amounts of effort on all these interpretive centres and very dull sites.

Most people visit Ireland to see amazing scenery and get out into the great outdoors. They also enjoy the quirky pub scene and exploring interesting little towns and villages and maybe spending a few days in somewhere like Dublin, Cork or Galway City.

We tend to over-focus on architectural heritage, which is something we don't really have much of to begin with. It's fine if you're Paris or London or York or whatever. However, other than a few key buildings, we don't have a hell of a lot of 'built environment' stuff and what we do have is not very interesting or spectacular.

I think sometimes we don't realise that what's interesting to an Irish tourist or to someone with an interest in Irish history is not necessarily very interesting to a German or an Italian with absolutely no context to place it in.

Some of it is downright depressing. We have too much focus on things that delve into our dark past. These are interesting, but they make little sense to someone who is just here to see some green fields and go fishing!

Also, European tourists are not impressed by small-scale old buildings. They typically have seen much older, larger scale versions at home.
Where as many Americans are impressed by anything >100 years old! Be it a cow shed or a castle!

I think we really need to look at what we're offering, what the audience is and why we are offering it.

To me we have :

• Irish tourists (domestic and diaspora) - BIG %.
• American / Canadian / Australia "New World" tourists. BIG %
• European / Old World tourists. Increasing %
• Emerging market tourists from really far flung places with no connection to Ireland at all e.g. China, India etc (smaller %)

The four audiences are *very* different and have totally different reasons for visiting Ireland.
I really don't think that we fully understand what our tourism product is and why people come. Until we fully understand our customers, we can't even begin to produce a good product!

An Ri rua

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

Recently went on a weekend away to Waterford visited Mount Melleray Abbey on the way. No entrance fee had a nice walk around the place went inside the church and looked at the way it was build etc, they have a nice little interpertive center tell you the history and a film you can start yourself as it was very quite and explains about the Cistercians and Mountmellick

On the way home we went to see the Rock of Cashel paid 12 euro for the two of us went in what a waste of money no tablets explaining about the Rock and it history half of it is blocked off and the film was a disgrace gave a general Irish history story no explaination about the Rock or its History. It is badly run by the OPW and bad value

Also I have passed it often over the last few years there is Scaffolding around it and inside for 3-4 years I had a look at the scaffolding inside it looks as if the setup is unused I love to have the rental contract on it it must be paid for 4-5 times

On the other hand Clonmacnoise is quite well run by the OPW a much more intresting experience good explantory film and a good interpertive centre

Unless Government bodied in the tourist sector get there act togeather we will keep going down hill

Of course, Mountmellick should read Mount Melleray. Maybe edit your own post? Confusing for Boardsies.

An Ri rua

Solair wrote: »

I'd agree with that.

There are too many tourist sites that look like they haven't been upgraded since the 1950s.

We don't take these things nearly seriously enough and the presentation is extremely patchy. Some are great, others are shockingly poorly presented.

I found bringing tourists around the Shandon & Buttermarket area of Cork recently, frankly embarrassing.

Shandon, is clearly run by the Church of Ireland, without any money. Yet, it's one of Cork's main landmark tourism sites. It desperately needs to be upgraded. The whole thing is just in a relatively poor state of repair and it's not very accessible either to anyone who isn't fully mobile and fit!

Meanwhile, the Butter Market is like something a secondary school did as a project. It's vaguely interesting, but it's extremely poorly presented and quite boring. It's not to say that the staff aren't nice or that they aren't making a huge effort. It's simply not the kind of material that has any interest to someone who isn't from Cork, or maybe the rest of Ireland (at a push!)

They need to get focus groups to actually go and try out these tourism sites and suggest improvements. Many of them are just running without any kind of idea of how they are interpreted by tourists.

Opening up "greenways", and cycle ways and all those kinds of things to make the countryside and scenery accessible would be far more useful than spending huge amounts of effort on all these interpretive centres and very dull sites.

Most people visit Ireland to see amazing scenery and get out into the great outdoors. They also enjoy the quirky pub scene and exploring interesting little towns and villages and maybe spending a few days in somewhere like Dublin, Cork or Galway City.

We tend to over-focus on architectural heritage, which is something we don't really have much of to begin with. It's fine if you're Paris or London or York or whatever. However, other than a few key buildings, we don't have a hell of a lot of 'built environment' stuff and what we do have is not very interesting or spectacular.

I think sometimes we don't realise that what's interesting to an Irish tourist or to someone with an interest in Irish history is not necessarily very interesting to a German or an Italian with absolutely no context to place it in.

Some of it is downright depressing. We have too much focus on things that delve into our dark past. These are interesting, but they make little sense to someone who is just here to see some green fields and go fishing!

Also, European tourists are not impressed by small-scale old buildings. They typically have seen much older, larger scale versions at home.
Where as many Americans are impressed by anything >100 years old! Be it a cow shed or a castle!

I think we really need to look at what we're offering, what the audience is and why we are offering it.

To me we have :

• Irish tourists (domestic and diaspora) - BIG %.
• American / Canadian / Australia "New World" tourists. BIG %
• European / Old World tourists. Increasing %
• Emerging market tourists from really far flung places with no connection to Ireland at all e.g. China, India etc (smaller %)

The four audiences are *very* different and have totally different reasons for visiting Ireland.
I really don't think that we fully understand what our tourism product is and why people come. Until we fully understand our customers, we can't even begin to produce a good product!

Good intentions and good post but this :-

We tend to over-focus on architectural heritage, which is something we don't really have much of to begin with. It's fine if you're Paris or London or York or whatever. However, other than a few key buildings, we don't have a hell of a lot of 'built environment' stuff and what we do have is not very interesting or spectacular.

is not true.

Georgian Dublin is the equal of Bath, England. Our country houses are also easily the equal of the UK's finest; some privately owned, some hotels and some under OPW management.

Our parks and gardens are increasingly being visited by garden tours from UK and North of Ireland. And there we agree. Its the outdoors, planned and unplanned, that most tourists to Ireland are after.

Incidentally, we have many poorly protected world-class architectural gems such as the Ardara Bridge near Cadamstown, Co Offaly (a 16th century jewel). Or round towers or monasteries from our early history. To not class them as world-class architectural wonders of great touristic interest would be false.

maninasia

We have fantastic built environment all over the country, much of it dating backs hundreds or thousands of years. It melds into the earth. It's the ancient celtic landscape that makes the difference. You don't need a signpost, you just walk down a country lane and see what appears around the bend. You want signs, go to London or Brussels.

All the interpretative centres should be razed, it's just government make a job get a vote stuff.

Waestrel

I have read most of the thread, let me just throw in my cents and add that in Dublin airport, the first point of call for most tourists, there is not signage other than english and irish. It says a lot about our mentality, we want tourists money, but are not really bothered facilitating them, in any way.

I am pie

Good point OP...serious lack of anything other than English or Irish almost everywhere. Trains & Ferries are no different from the airport as far as I recall.

liammur

This doesn't give a great impression, the main Limerick to Cork road:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3wt3YKnGI0

AlekSmart

liammur wrote: »

This doesn't give a great impression, the main Limerick to Cork road:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3wt3YKnGI0

This is where the money is now,Liammur...forget all about the "Knowledge Based Economy" scutter,these boys are walking all over the resht of us.....:D

djpbarry

An Ri rua wrote: »

Georgian Dublin is the equal of Bath, England.

I agree with the general thrust of the rest of your post, but Georgian Dublin and Bath are completely different!

Judgement Day

I was thinking of posting about this again the other day after hearing two different items about Ireland's tourism 'product' - red rag to a bull stuff in my case. The first was mention that the "Dunbrody (FAS built) Famine Ship" was one of Ireland's flagship tourism projects - says it all really; and the second was a statement from the Irish Hotels Federation to the effect that Ireland has 'the best hotels in Western Europe' .......blah, blah, blah ...Sadly unless the powers that be come out of this alternative universe where they delusionly believe that because something's Irish it's the best in the world we have no chance of improving things.

The Dunbrody is alright but it just another FAS recreation of something and if a real famine ship was discovered it would be allowed to fall to pieces where it lay. Attractions like the Dunbrody are in the tuppenny halfpenny place when it comes to similar projects in the UK....http://www.maryrose.org/ or http://www.hms-victory.com/ or http://www.thedockyard.co.uk/ to name but a few. As for our hotels, many of which fall into the Zombie category and would double as hospitals or industrial units and overlook attractive Irish motorway roundabouts - the best in Europe I think not.



Anyway, I see the much vaunted 'Cultural Tourism' gets a lash from artist Robert Ballagh in today's Irish Times - says all you need to know really.


In search of Irish Culture

Sir, – A few years ago I found myself, against my better instincts, greatly encouraged by remarks made by the great and the good at the Farmleigh Forum, organised by the previous government.

We were told how important the arts are in our society and how the arts must play a central role in our recovery. More recently we hear a lot about the value of cultural tourism, particularly in the context of the initiative “The Gathering”.

Well, how foolish was I to believe that such aspirations might translate into positive action.

Last week, when travelling back to Dublin from Galway by train I had a truly revealing experience. On the journey I struck up a conversation with some people from the US who were without question cultural tourists. Now even though this was their first trip to Ireland, they came well informed. I listened with interest as they outlined their various encounters with Irish cultural life. They first travelled to Sandycove to visit the Martello Tower, made famous by James Joyce, only to discover that it was closed. After this disappointment, they returned to Dublin and went to Synge Street to see the home of George Bernard Shaw to discover that it too was closed.

They then decided to change tack and check out the visual arts scene.

Sadly, no luck there! They found that most of the National Gallery was closed and that several rooms in the Hugh Lane Gallery were also closed due to staff shortages. Luckily they didn’t venture out to Kilmainham because there they would have discovered that the Irish Museum of Modern Art is also closed.

After Dublin they travelled west to find that the Nora Barnacle Museum in Galway was not open to the public and that the tower in Sligo, once occupied by WB Yeats, was closed due to flood damage.

So, having listened to this disappointing litany, the only emotion I can admit to in relation to our present cultural infrastructure is one of shame. – Yours, etc,

ROBERT BALLAGH,
Arbour Hill, Dublin 7.


http://www.irishtimes.com/letters/index.html#1224320527188

MadsL

Judgement Day wrote: »

I was thinking of posting about this again the other day after hearing two different items about Ireland's tourism 'product' - red rag to a bull stuff in my case. The first was mention that the "Dunbrody (FAS built) Famine Ship" was one of Ireland's flagship tourism projects - says it all really; and the second was a statement from the Irish Hotels Federation to the effect that Ireland has 'the best hotels in Western Europe' .......blah, blah, blah ...Sadly unless the powers that be come out of this alternative universe where they delusionly believe that because something's Irish it's the best in the world we have no chance of improving things.

The Dunbrody is alright but it just another FAS recreation of something and if a real famine ship was discovered it would be allowed to fall to pieces where it lay. Attractions like the Dunbrody are in the tuppenny halfpenny place when it comes to similar projects in the UK....http://www.maryrose.org/ or http://www.hms-victory.com/ or http://www.thedockyard.co.uk/ to name but a few. As for our hotels, many of which fall into the Zombie category and would double as hospitals or industrial units and overlook attractive Irish motorway roundabouts - the best in Europe I think not.



Anyway, I see the much vaunted 'Cultural Tourism' gets a lash from artist Robert Ballagh in today's Irish Times - says all you need to know really.


In search of Irish Culture

Sir, – A few years ago I found myself, against my better instincts, greatly encouraged by remarks made by the great and the good at the Farmleigh Forum, organised by the previous government.

We were told how important the arts are in our society and how the arts must play a central role in our recovery. More recently we hear a lot about the value of cultural tourism, particularly in the context of the initiative “The Gathering”.

Well, how foolish was I to believe that such aspirations might translate into positive action.

Last week, when travelling back to Dublin from Galway by train I had a truly revealing experience. On the journey I struck up a conversation with some people from the US who were without question cultural tourists. Now even though this was their first trip to Ireland, they came well informed. I listened with interest as they outlined their various encounters with Irish cultural life. They first travelled to Sandycove to visit the Martello Tower, made famous by James Joyce, only to discover that it was closed. After this disappointment, they returned to Dublin and went to Synge Street to see the home of George Bernard Shaw to discover that it too was closed.

They then decided to change tack and check out the visual arts scene.

Sadly, no luck there! They found that most of the National Gallery was closed and that several rooms in the Hugh Lane Gallery were also closed due to staff shortages. Luckily they didn’t venture out to Kilmainham because there they would have discovered that the Irish Museum of Modern Art is also closed.

After Dublin they travelled west to find that the Nora Barnacle Museum in Galway was not open to the public and that the tower in Sligo, once occupied by WB Yeats, was closed due to flood damage.

So, having listened to this disappointing litany, the only emotion I can admit to in relation to our present cultural infrastructure is one of shame. – Yours, etc,

ROBERT BALLAGH,
Arbour Hill, Dublin 7.


http://www.irishtimes.com/letters/index.html#1224320527188

Truly shocking stuff, but surely tourists come to Ireland for the "craic" not that boring history stuff :rolleyes:

Farmer Pudsey

Judgement Day wrote: »

I was thinking of posting about this again the other day after hearing two different items about Ireland's tourism 'product' - red rag to a bull stuff in my case. The first was mention that the "Dunbrody (FAS built) Famine Ship" was one of Ireland's flagship tourism projects - says it all really; and the second was a statement from the Irish Hotels Federation to the effect that Ireland has 'the best hotels in Western Europe' .......blah, blah, blah ...Sadly unless the powers that be come out of this alternative universe where they delusionly believe that because something's Irish it's the best in the world we have no chance of improving things.

The Dunbrody is alright but it just another FAS recreation of something and if a real famine ship was discovered it would be allowed to fall to pieces where it lay. Attractions like the Dunbrody are in the tuppenny halfpenny place when it comes to similar projects in the UK....http://www.maryrose.org/ or http://www.hms-victory.com/ or http://www.thedockyard.co.uk/ to name but a few. As for our hotels, many of which fall into the Zombie category and would double as hospitals or industrial units and overlook attractive Irish motorway roundabouts - the best in Europe I think not.



Anyway, I see the much vaunted 'Cultural Tourism' gets a lash from artist Robert Ballagh in today's Irish Times - says all you need to know really.


In search of Irish Culture

Sir, – A few years ago I found myself, against my better instincts, greatly encouraged by remarks made by the great and the good at the Farmleigh Forum, organised by the previous government.

We were told how important the arts are in our society and how the arts must play a central role in our recovery. More recently we hear a lot about the value of cultural tourism, particularly in the context of the initiative “The Gathering”.

Well, how foolish was I to believe that such aspirations might translate into positive action.

Last week, when travelling back to Dublin from Galway by train I had a truly revealing experience. On the journey I struck up a conversation with some people from the US who were without question cultural tourists. Now even though this was their first trip to Ireland, they came well informed. I listened with interest as they outlined their various encounters with Irish cultural life. They first travelled to Sandycove to visit the Martello Tower, made famous by James Joyce, only to discover that it was closed. After this disappointment, they returned to Dublin and went to Synge Street to see the home of George Bernard Shaw to discover that it too was closed.

They then decided to change tack and check out the visual arts scene.

Sadly, no luck there! They found that most of the National Gallery was closed and that several rooms in the Hugh Lane Gallery were also closed due to staff shortages. Luckily they didn’t venture out to Kilmainham because there they would have discovered that the Irish Museum of Modern Art is also closed.

After Dublin they travelled west to find that the Nora Barnacle Museum in Galway was not open to the public and that the tower in Sligo, once occupied by WB Yeats, was closed due to flood damage.

So, having listened to this disappointing litany, the only emotion I can admit to in relation to our present cultural infrastructure is one of shame. – Yours, etc,

ROBERT BALLAGH,
Arbour Hill, Dublin 7.


http://www.irishtimes.com/letters/index.html#1224320527188

And they did not even get a chance to complain abot the overpricing that goes on.

I must say I am not suprised I visited the Rock of Cashel earlier this year and was shocked compared to Clonmacnoise it is over rated although that has issues with the weather this year. Over the last 10 years we have priced ourselves out of the tourist market and continue to do so. Then the continual closure of attraction that people want to visit we consider that everyone that comes to Ireland on holidays wants to go for a few jars and listen to bulls##t in a pub.

Also just because a lot of hotels are offering deals we consider them good value when all they present is a generic product often with poor overpriced food and bars that are empty from monday-thursday and maybe over crowed on Saturday night and were design at the height of the celtic tiger to cater for 2-300 people with a draw on the taps a half a mile long which causes the beer to be undrinkable. And if you want any drink that is unusal take out a morgtage. And the none of the staff may be Irish and have not got a clue about the locality and they expect because they have a few leaflets in the lobby this will do/

Holocene

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

Also just because a lot of hotels are offering deals we consider them good value when all they present is a generic product often with poor overpriced food and bars that are empty from monday-thursday and maybe over crowed on Saturday night and were design at the height of the celtic tiger to cater for 2-300 people with a draw on the taps a half a mile long which causes the beer to be undrinkable. And if you want any drink that is unusal take out a morgtage. And the none of the staff may be Irish and have not got a clue about the locality and they expect because they have a few leaflets in the lobby this will do/

Hotel management (and I've worked in a few) would consider themselves to be in the catering industry and the leisure industry but not in the heritage industry or the culture industry. They think that those matters fall outside of their immediate interests.

But nothing could be further from the truth, and the imagined partition between business and heritage is an entirely spurious and damaging one which is propagated, in part, by our third-level education system that herds marketing, business, humanities and artistic students into separate classrooms, departments and institutions as though they were separate species.

If you want to work as a frontline representative of Ireland in the tourism sector, a short government-sponsored course in local history should be mandatory.

How many of our hospitality graduates have taken even a single module in local history and heritage?
How many of our business graduates are taught about the wealth of the cultural resources in front of their nose?
And why aren't our many talented (and unemployed) humanities and history graduates properly utilized in the catering industry?

djpbarry

Holocene wrote: »

If you want to work as a frontline representative of Ireland in the tourism sector, a short government-sponsored course in local history should be mandatory.

Where is the money for all these local history courses going to come from?

Holocene wrote: »

And why aren't our many talented (and unemployed) humanities and history graduates properly utilized in the catering industry?

Because most of them probably don't want to work in the catering industry, I imagine?

Why don't we leave the history to the historians and the catering to the caterers?