The Bastard Posted October 4, 2007 Share Posted October 4, 2007 Some good comments on this thread. What the hell does "treat your inner child to a weekend away" mean ? DTL does seem to be staffed by a load of civil servants waiting quietly for retirement, and there's an awful lot of them if those stats are correct. Someone in those hundreds of people must be capable of coming up with some innovative ideas & driving them forward through the bureaucracy, instead of doing everything on the cheap & overselling the tired, entertainment-free ghost town that this place has become through lack of investment. God only knows what anyone coming over to "treat their inner child" would find to do over here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saltire Posted October 7, 2007 Share Posted October 7, 2007 Cheap air travel and ferry crossings and the people will come - maybe not for long holidays but certainly for weekend and short breaks. Hit the nail on the head there. I have a pal on the island who I usually visit a couple of times of year. Bringing the car over in October on the standard 5 day ticket, £130.00. Yet even if I wanted to stay an extra day, the price jumps up to £180! So in effect the Steam Packet are restricting how long I stay on the island. I don't understand. How does the length of my stay affect the price of my fare? No matter how long I stay I'm having to use the Steam Packet anyway! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saltire Posted October 7, 2007 Share Posted October 7, 2007 The IOM is a unique place with its own culture, history and people. Scotland and Ireland have both managed to market their history and culture in a way, that visitors from abroad want to visit. No need for theme parks etc In Scotland there are distillery tours, castles, and old buildings of interest made into visitor attractions. Many with guided tours. We even have open top sightseeing buses which give visitors a good insight into our towns. A ferry service now runs from Zeebrugge to Rosyth (which is in the east of Scotland just beyond the Forth Bridge, near Edinburgh). The price is roughly the same to get a car from Heysham - Douglas. In the summer you now see more Dutch, German and Belgian plated cars than ever before. Even as little as 10 years ago, this was not the case and tourism was dying over here. The important thing was what was marketed to the countries in Europe, and how it was marketed. Emphasis on the history of the place was the key. I am sure Ireland has done similar. Why not attract people to the island for what it is? Manx. Tourists like visiting places to see how the locals live, what the history of the place was, and how people used to live. But this must be aided with good quality tourist attractions to illustrate these things. If you get that right then you may find that islanders want to open B&Bs, hotels etc to tap into this market. The island can deal with visitors, as has been proved many times over during the TT. However the travel issues to the island must be addressed if any tourism plans are to work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Tatlock Posted October 7, 2007 Share Posted October 7, 2007 Cheap air travel and ferry crossings and the people will come - maybe not for long holidays but certainly for weekend and short breaks. Bringing the car over in October on the standard 5 day ticket, £130.00. Yet even if I wanted to stay an extra day, the price jumps up to £180! So in effect the Steam Packet are restricting how long I stay on the island. I don't understand. How does the length of my stay affect the price of my fare? No matter how long I stay I'm having to use the Steam Packet anyway! Welcome to the intracies of the illogical random-number-based SR website. Indeed, how come a one way ticket for a car costs £90 or £110 and a return £130 - especially when you are travelling on a practically empty boat at stupid o'clock in the morning? I also notice that if you want to change your ticket even as a foot passenger - it costs you an extra £9 now (up from £5 earlier in the year) - for what is done in a two minute phone call. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thesultanofsheight Posted October 7, 2007 Share Posted October 7, 2007 Tourists like visiting places to see how the locals live What in breeze block seafront apartments, or on clusters of breeze block estates? I don't really see the attraction here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squelch Posted October 7, 2007 Share Posted October 7, 2007 The longer visitors stay on the Isle of Man the more they will spend and input into the local economy. It makes sense that if transport costs were lower for longer stays than shorter stays visitors might extend their holidays. If it was cheaper to stay for a fortnight than for five days or a week would this not encourage visitors to stay longer? What about cheaper family package deals? When we have travelled to the Uk and abroad great interest has been shown by people about the Isle of Man. We usually collect what brochures we can from the tourist board to give out to people who show an interest in the island and these are always greatly received and appreciated. I would like to have comprehensive Welcome Packs, professionally prepared by the Tourist Board, to hand out to people who show an interest in our island. If these could include a well prepared Dvd so much the better. The Manx residents who are proud of their island, and when explaining it to people off island, are the greatest ambassadors for the Isle of Man. If they convey their decentness and love of their homeland this is a far greater incentive to potential visitors than tacky posters in pub car parks. The photo of the poster in the pub car park suggests that this was not neccessarily in an area teeming with potential visitors wanting to come here. The Tourist Board should ensure that their posters are placed in areas where they are effective, not on any spare billboard where soap powder or lager adverts usually reside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gladys Posted October 7, 2007 Share Posted October 7, 2007 I'd second that Squelch. I actually think the Freedom to Flourish DVD is very good and captures a lot of what we all hold dear, apart from the whirling dervishes on the RBSI building, but that apart I think it is a good piece of PR. When is it ever used? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homarus Posted October 8, 2007 Author Share Posted October 8, 2007 Right ! So we already have a proffessionally made D.V.D extolling the virtues about all that's best of our Island ? How do we get people to watch it is the question?. I don't know about anyone else ,but I have noticed in the U.K. tabloids, regular free D.V.D' supplements covering films ,music etc. How about paying one of them to distribute our D.v.d. , could it be done? Would it be commercially viable to do so ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bastard Posted October 8, 2007 Share Posted October 8, 2007 I was under the impression that "Freedom to Flourish" was aimed at businesses relocating over here, in the unlikely event that they would consider this tatty Craggy Island replica over the Channel Isles. Giving it out with newspapers would be an enormous waste of money, so I'm surprised the Government hasn't done it already (a bit like the comments form I saw in one of the Government Offices this morning, that required you to post it rather than putting it in a comment box. Unsurprisingly, the freepost return envelope was addressed to the same office, so 20p+ of taxpayer's money is being wasted every time to send the reply to the same building). I don't think that there's a magazine focused on tax-avoidance or money-laundering, so I'm not sure what the best way of distributing the Dervish DVD would be. Maybe they could set it up online & market it over e-mail, although this wouldn't involve the traditional giving of huge amounts of money to "consultants". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feelslikeitshould Posted October 8, 2007 Share Posted October 8, 2007 I'd second that Squelch. I actually think the Freedom to Flourish DVD is very good and captures a lot of what we all hold dear, apart from the whirling dervishes on the RBSI building, but that apart I think it is a good piece of PR. When is it ever used? I think this is the one they show on the boat....which seems a bit thick as people are already on their way over by that point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saltire Posted October 8, 2007 Share Posted October 8, 2007 Tourists like visiting places to see how the locals live What in breeze block seafront apartments, or on clusters of breeze block estates? I don't really see the attraction here? Scotland and Ireland, and any other country also have similar estates. It doesn't mean that you have coach loads of tourists trailing about council estates looking in peoples windows! What I meant by my original comment, was tourists like visiting towns they have not been to before, and generally using that towns facilities (bringing money into the town), a change of scenery as it were, as well as a bit of sight seeing thrown in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saltire Posted October 8, 2007 Share Posted October 8, 2007 Cheap air travel and ferry crossings and the people will come - maybe not for long holidays but certainly for weekend and short breaks. Totally agree , but don't you think that's just a little bit too sensible?? gerat idea then we'll get loads of riff raff over who don't want to spend any money. Just because people prefer to use the cheaper airlines, doesn't mean they are "riff raff" or miserly. What it does mean, is it attracts people who otherwise may not have bothered visiting the island at all. And then they may have more money to spend when they get to the island! If the island is serious about increasing tourism, you can't really pick and choose who wants to visit. I personally have used Easyjet and Ryanair on plenty of European trips, and I haven't seen a plane full of riff raff yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slinkydevil Posted October 8, 2007 Share Posted October 8, 2007 tourists like visiting towns they have not been to before, and generally using that towns facilities Have you been to the Isle of Man? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saltire Posted October 8, 2007 Share Posted October 8, 2007 tourists like visiting towns they have not been to before, and generally using that towns facilities Have you been to the Isle of Man? On many occasions. Both during TT and at quieter times of the year. I take the point if you are living there all year, you may find it a bit limited. But for someone over for a short break, they will still use the local pubs and restaurants? Just out of interest, what would your plans be for the island, if it was definite that tourism will never really return? The Finance Sector benefit from the tax situation, but what other businesses would benefit from being on the island rather than in the UK? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hboy Posted October 8, 2007 Share Posted October 8, 2007 What I meant by my original comment, was tourists like visiting towns they have not been to before, and generally using that towns facilities Have you ever been to the Isle of Man? What "facilities" are on offer for tourists? You can't even have a piss in most towns as the public loos are closed so I'm wondering just what facilities you think people want to come here and use? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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