Inovative Ways To Improve Tourism On Mann?

[VinnieK]

I think that over the next 10 years the island should provide enough higher education to reach University status. This would bring in both foreign and UK students with consequent benefits.

 

That's something that's been mentioned a few times (latterly by the head of the business school), and although it would be nice to have a university on the Island, I'm not sure it's really feasible. In order to qualify as a university, any institution would have to offer research degrees, and in order to do that it needs to be a true research university with appropriate facilities. Even if it were confined to the arts and humanities (thus missing out on the most profitable, though desperately expensive research), this would still necessitate extensive on campus collections, a regular budget for travel expenses and access to other resources and journals if it were to hope of attracting decent staff. When you then factor in serious accomodation, IT facilities and facilities demanded by student and academic alike it starts to look ridiculously expensive.

 

That in itself wouldn't be too big a problem, but our geography and political situation makes it difficult for any Island university to be a proper contender. New UK universities have the benefit of being relatively affordable for EU students (who pay the same subsidised fees as the UK students). Due to not being a part of the UK or the EU, any Manx university wouldn't be able to offer subsidised fees; making it prohibitively expensive both for UK and EU students (after all, why pay somewhere in the region of £8,000 (which is roughly the unsubsidised norm, at least for UK universities) a year to study at a new and unknown place when you could study at Imperial or UCL for less than half that amount). That leaves only international students outside the EU as a potential source of revenue, but they're largely attracted by reputation or some specific advantage that the place they're travelling to has over their domestic universities. To build up that kind of reputation and ability to rival UK competition would in all likelyhood take years of loss making investment until the "brand" started to attract people in serious numbers, and even then there's no guarrantee it would ever amount to much.

 

A small university college (i.e. teaching only) formally associated with one of the big UK institutions is probably the best way forward for higher education on the Island, cheaper, smaller, and without the hassle of a university, but still offering a decent education for people who want to follow higher education but don't want to leave the Island.

[_pele_]

Some cracking replies, plumbing new depths of bitterness. Can't wait for the Parish Walk to become a "major international event" of the status of Cronk-y-Voddey sports day. Super-casino would be good though, and nuking Andreas airport for a dedicated racetrack gets my vote.

 

Seriously though :

 

Dry Ski Slope - why the hell not ? We've got miles of hills untroubled except for sheep and their associated perverts. The UK still lacks some of the most modern artificial slopes, and something like an Astroride slope would attract a lot of attention from the UK ski community. Check this one out. Stick in some sphering, tobogganing and the rest, too.

 

MTB tracks - with such a small area filled with mountainous bits, it could be a great MTB holiday destination. But we've only got one track planned. Not exactly going to put Wales in the shade, is it ?

 

Coast Sports - The surf is great, there's great kayaking, jet-skiing, wakeboarding, water-skiing, fishing, powerboating and sailing everywhere, but nobody doing it and nowhere for tourists to book it. With all the wind and sand busily eroding from the north, we've apparently got one of Europe's best sites for Kitesurfing, landboarding & kite buggying, but no provision for the sport. Look at Jersey's burgeoning surfing scene, the beachside bars and facilities & areas set aside for coast sports. Why not ? What about a 5-year programme investing in developing coast sports ?

 

The main problem for this stuff is that the IOM lacks cheap, accessible accommodation & cheap, accessible activities - it should be possible to get over for nearly f**k all on a foot passenger fare & then book bunkhouse accommodation on a farm & check out a big range of outdoor stuff to do from a range promoted by the DTL. Instead, even though you can get here reasonably cheaply, the accommodation is top dollar and it's a major pain in the arse finding something to do that isn't booked up weeks in advance. The DTL hasn't yet made the connection between investing in activites and numbers of tourists - a decent dry ski facility would be packing them in, but after getting its fingers burned on the tyre ring, "Bounty" replica and all that shite, the DTL is afraid to invest in anything. The few attractions over here are shoddy and cheap.

 

Looks good Mr Bastard!

 

Especially , when you consider we already have an electric Railway that is badly underused,

Say for example , you were to build a dry ski slope to run alongside the railway ,the trams could run up and down every 10--15mins.

Couple that with the fact that there are Cafe facilities already in place, it could be a goer?

Great idea and for those who like ski slopes, check Dubai, United Arab Emirates out.

http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:Z6KJb-...56_skislope.jpg

http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:wXQA0V..._bbb52c3608.jpg

http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:IKR6D8...s/dubai-ski.jpg

 

Now thats a proper slope

 

Edit: Sorry about the small pictures as I dont know how to make them bigger

[guardone]

Many valid points Vinnie. I thought that you could now get Uni status on the strength of the Teaching and not just on Research. I still feel if Business/finance/agriculture/environment/geography/social policy/politics/philosophy and languages were offered, the cheaper subjects; it could be doable over 10 years. Even if it broke even, the other benefits for Island life would be immense. At present, all manx students spend their money across, the Gov gets none back.

[triskelion]

Many valid points Vinnie. I thought that you could now get Uni status on the strength of the Teaching and not just on Research. I still feel if Business/finance/agriculture/environment/geography/social policy/politics/philosophy and languages were offered, the cheaper subjects; it could be doable over 10 years. Even if it broke even, the other benefits for Island life would be immense. At present, all manx students spend their money across, the Gov gets none back.

There aren't all that many incentives to move back though after university. Establishing a university on the Island, a matter on which I am inclined to agree with Vinnie, would keep money on the Island to a degree, but you would probably find that most Manx students would still probably go across anyway.

 

Regardless, I seriously doubt you could set up an entire university in 10 years; most have developed over decades or taken advantage of large local populations.