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Extending the 'tourist' season


Moghrey Mie

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2 hours ago, Roger Mexico said:

Now, now, John.  These OAP coach trips keep the court system going in fines.  Don't bite the hand that feeds you.

(Obviously you shouldn't put people from Oakham up in the Rutland as they'll just behave as if they were at home).

Actually these trips at the start/end of a season can be reasonable useful financially, because, although hoteliers, the Steam Packet etc don't make much profit on them, they do mean that overheads are covered for a bit longer.  It's not like other business is being turned away.  That said higher energy costs may have an effect on the viability.

The only real money is for whoever manages to get them in the evening for drinks. 

Everything else is pared to the bone.

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2 minutes ago, quilp said:

Whoever it is will need extra bouncers if they're anything like the woman in that link of Roger's. 

I owned the Savoy Hotel on Central Prom for a decade in late 80’s/90’s.

We had a bar. They’d eat evening meal and then they were off.

The coach company block booked 40 people, then, a few days before arrival they released 30 and you ended up with 10 staying, which didn’t cover overheads 

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On 10/5/2022 at 3:38 PM, Max Power said:

I visited Killarney a while back and talking to locals, their season drops off at the beginning of December and resumes in February. I didn't see a lot there different to what we have here, just that some of it is done a bit better and some nice hotels. 

No offence Max but do you not think that a lot of people go to Killarney to enjoy the Craic, the music and the drink. Loads and loads of lively Irish Pubs that are actually Irish and are like you imagine Irish pubs to be like.

We have Brendon O'Connells! Its about as non typically Irish as you could imagine.

I think there are some similarities but in the main Killarney is a mini Dublin. Its party central .We are a mini something else and more of our stuff is weather dependant.

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Tourism is such a small part of our economy ( 5% ? ) but seems to attract a lot of political attention. Tradition?

The coach parties give the least  financial contribution, the British Cruises are becoming the same.

Not to say we  should get rid of them but we have to be honest about the value of this sector and certainly not let it take precedence over other sectors such as new build of heritage wrecks!

Most of our MHKs would have been in short pants when we last had  booming tourism!!!

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2 minutes ago, Happier diner said:

No offence Max but do you not think that a lot of people go to Killarney to enjoy the Craic, the music and the drink. Loads and loads of lively Irish Pubs that are actually Irish and are like you imagine Irish pubs to be like.

We have Brendon O'Connells! Its about as non typically Irish as you could imagine.

I think there are some similarities but in the main Killarney is a mini Dublin. Its party central .We are a mini something else and more of our stuff is weather dependant.

I’ve a friend who is a professional tour guide in Ireland. A huge amount of the Irish tourism trade to places like Killarney is people flying into Dublin, 2 or 3 nights, then coached to Cork, Killarney, Limerick, Galway. One night in each. The experience is Ireland, not any particular town or city.

He freelances and picks up gigs all year round with high end operators. Mainly USA, Australia.

Same happens in UK.

IoM isn’t easy as a one night stopover, (time, cost and type of transport), and isn’t a big enough destination in its own right.

Sure all those places in Ireland have people who specifically visit and stay a few nights. However it’s the thousands who are on the various circulatory tours to the homeland every week that make it economically viable.

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2 hours ago, John Wright said:

I’ve a friend who is a professional tour guide in Ireland. A huge amount of the Irish tourism trade to places like Killarney is people flying into Dublin, 2 or 3 nights, then coached to Cork, Killarney, Limerick, Galway. One night in each. The experience is Ireland, not any particular town or city.

He freelances and picks up gigs all year round with high end operators. Mainly USA, Australia.

Same happens in UK.

IoM isn’t easy as a one night stopover, (time, cost and type of transport), and isn’t a big enough destination in its own right.

Sure all those places in Ireland have people who specifically visit and stay a few nights. However it’s the thousands who are on the various circulatory tours to the homeland every week that make it economically viable.

Yes, that's very true John. In fact Ireland is a reasonably large and self sufficient tourist economy of its own. Many Irish people flit off to Irish locations for their holidays and short breaks too. A bit like a crowd from Ramsey spending a few days in Port Erin!

If anyone has half an hour, this episode of the Scottish TV comedy "Still Game" has a bit of resonance with Douglas off season, well maybe in season?

 

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22 minutes ago, Max Power said:

Yes, that's very true John. In fact Ireland is a reasonably large and self sufficient tourist economy of its own. Many Irish people flit off to Irish locations for their holidays and short breaks too. A bit like a crowd from Ramsey spending a few days in Port Erin!

If anyone has half an hour, this episode of the Scottish TV comedy "Still Game" has a bit of resonance with Douglas off season, well maybe in season?

 

And of course there’s another big difference in terms of viability. That’s price level. Dublin is one of the most expensive cities in Europe for hotels, eating out and drinking. The other big tourism centres aren’t far behind.

The number of hotels in Ireland has seen a huge increase over the last decade, but they aren’t Travelodge/Premier Inn entry level. It’s hard to find anything much under €200 a night, and busy weekends, summer, Xmas it’s double that.

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9 minutes ago, John Wright said:

And of course there’s another big difference in terms of viability. That’s price level. Dublin is one of the most expensive cities in Europe for hotels, eating out and drinking. The other big tourism centres aren’t far behind.

The number of hotels in Ireland has seen a huge increase over the last decade, but they aren’t Travelodge/Premier Inn entry level. It’s hard to find anything much under €200 a night, and busy weekends, summer, Xmas it’s double that.

You're not wrong John. Although five years ago we stayed in the Killarney Lake Hotel for £79 per night in August. We must have hit lucky I think.

Hotel Prices Killarney

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33 minutes ago, offshoremanxman said:

I was just looking at this before online. If you want to visually see how much we have destroyed everything in the last 40 odd years you have to ask how many civil servants has it taken to ‘manage’ to get things as dire as they are now when you consider how rammed the IOM was not that long ago 

 

But 40 years ago was before cheap packages holidays to the sun started, budget airlines,Airbnb, internet etc etc so no competition 

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23 minutes ago, Banker said:

But 40 years ago was before cheap packages holidays to the sun started, budget airlines,Airbnb, internet etc etc so no competition 

Don't spoil his moment. He wants to blame the civil servants for it. Let's face it they get the blame for everything else so why stop now. 

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