The tourists are back..

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Mr.Gumby
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The tourists are back..

Post by Mr.Gumby »

At some point during one of the lockdowns I was walking the Glen in Ennistymon when I met one of the other regular walkers there, a local woman. She said : 'isn't it great to have the place to ourselves again?'. Well, yes it was. It was quiet, people you met on your walks were happy to see you, even if they kept their distance they always had a few words, you could even walk the Cliffs of Moher (once the lockdown local travel restrictions were eased or lifted) without meeting loads of people who would look right through you, as if you weren't there.

It has been building up, busses clogging up roads that are too small to let two of them pass in different directions and all that stuff. Last Sunday I was walking up on a mountain in the Burren, some two miles northwest of the Poulnabrone Dolmen, enjoying the quiet, the hundreds of orchids, primroses, mountain avens, gentians and what have you, the stony place coming alive with colour. A convoy of twenty campervans came crawling down the road below (they were French, we had met them earlier). Madness.

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It's all fine ofcourse, minor annoyances like dangerous drivers and clogged up roads aside, and I wouldn't pay much attention to it all. Earlier today I was driving and the morning program on the radio did an item on returning tourists. Among people interviewed was a family from Dallas, Texas. When asked why they had come to Ireland, the woman explained she had done a class on Ireland in college, 'so I knew all about James Joyce and William Butler Yeats'. She had to come, ofcourse she did. The interviewer asked how she was enjoying Ireland. 'Well I loved London, Scotland was great but Dublin was soooo modern, I didn't like that' . The interviewer tried to make light of it by suggesting people should perhaps stop using electric lights in their houses but quickly moved on after that. I don't know what to say to all that,,
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Re: The tourists are back..

Post by benhall.1 »

Mr.Gumby wrote: Wed May 11, 2022 5:28 am 'Well I loved London, Scotland was great but Dublin was soooo modern, I didn't like that' . The interviewer tried to make light of it by suggesting people should perhaps stop using electric lights in their houses but quickly moved on after that. I don't know what to say to all that,,
I wonder which part of Dublin she'd seen. It always strikes me as being quite similar in feel to many parts of London. There's plenty of history and plenty of historic buildings in Dublin. Where did she go, do you think?
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Re: The tourists are back..

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benhall.1 wrote: Wed May 11, 2022 6:56 am Where did she go, do you think?
I honestly don't know. The interviewer pressed her a bit about literary connections, based on what she indicated had raised her interest but she didn't see any statues of writers, Stephen Daedalus' Martello tower and MoLi didn't come up at all.

Josephine Marsh once told me she used to busk on the Cliffs of Moher and was severely put off by a visitor on a quick tour of Europe who shouted 'oh look the white cliffs of Dover, aren't they lovely'. That came to my mind immediately when the interviewer asked about Ireland and she came back 'London was great..' but I probably got the wrong end of the stick there.

First time I came to Dublin in 1979 I thought it felt like it was still with one foot in the 19th century. I don't know what people expect when they come to Ireland. Here on the forum one member was giving out at some point he went to a thatching demonstration and the man in charge was using, god forbid, a metal ladder. He didn't buy my argument Health and Safety regulations had something to do with that. A decade ago there was a thing about Americans coming to Ireland, finding young people from Eastern Europe manning the hotels and the pubs. And vocally complaining about it. They'd have a great time landing in Lisdoonvarna, Ballyvaughan or Kilkee where population numbers more than doubled in the last few weeks with the arrival of refugees from Ukraine.
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Re: The tourists are back..

Post by an seanduine »

Sarc On/ Isn´t it nice to live in someone else´s diorama? Sarc Off/ :D

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Re: The tourists are back..

Post by bigsciota »

I've had multiple people say the same thing to me, Dublin felt too modern or too city-like. My guess is that they think they'll step back in time to the Victorian era or something, not come across a definitely old but also quite normal city. Makes a lot more sense when you realize that a lot of people in the US will have grown up hearing memories of Ireland from grandparents and great-grandparents, or family stories of when so-and-so came through Ellis Island, so pretty much everything they've heard about Ireland comes from decades if not a century or more ago, and tinted with a heavy dose of nostalgia. Same goes for political and religious attitudes, although I won't get into that!

I will say that I advise most people who ask not to spend too much time in Dublin. Part of it is a personal bias against bigger cities (and Dublin specifically, having married a Corkwoman), but there's also IMO a lot more compelling places for tourists to go in Ireland! Unfortunately Mr. Gumby it means I'm sending at least some of them your way, but you can't live in a spot like that and not expect people to want to visit!
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Re: The tourists are back..

Post by Nanohedron »

Mr.Gumby wrote: Wed May 11, 2022 5:28 amAmong people interviewed was a family from Dallas, Texas. When asked why they had come to Ireland, the woman explained she had done a class on Ireland in college, 'so I knew all about James Joyce and William Butler Yeats'. She had to come, ofcourse she did. The interviewer asked how she was enjoying Ireland. 'Well I loved London, Scotland was great but Dublin was soooo modern, I didn't like that' . The interviewer tried to make light of it by suggesting people should perhaps stop using electric lights in their houses but quickly moved on after that. I don't know what to say to all that,,
an seanduine wrote: Wed May 11, 2022 7:27 am Sarc On/ Isn´t it nice to live in someone else´s diorama? Sarc Off/ :D

Bob
I'm willing to bet that the electric lights rebuke went right over her head, rather than be taken for what it was meant to be. I think Americans recognize ourselves as consumers, but few any longer understand what being a guest entails.

Some time back, there was a rude out-of-towner at my watering hole going on and on about how my town sucked, etc. etc., blah blah blah. Well, of course them's fightin' words, and we locals were just looking at each other in disbelief. While I don't know what he expected for his impudence, once a pause in the bad manners presented itself, I said, "So, not getting laid, huh?" It must have hit a nerve, because he went away.

Hang in there, Ireland.
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Re: The tourists are back..

Post by Mr.Gumby »

Some tourists arrive in a place and take it on its own terms, as they find it. Others arrive with a set of expectations and preconceptions and feel they are entitled for the destination to fully live up to those. Often finding it hard to accept they have arrived in a place where people live their daily lives rather than a theme park tailored to their wants and needs.
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Re: The tourists are back..

Post by Nanohedron »

Mr.Gumby wrote: Wed May 11, 2022 10:33 am Others arrive with a set of expectations and preconceptions and feel they are entitled for the destination to fully live up to those. Often finding it hard to accept they have arrived in a place where people live their daily lives rather than a theme park tailored to their wants and needs.
This.

But I hasten to add that it's not just Yanks. One time a German was waxing bold enough to assert - before a Yank audience - that an American by definition could not match a European for intellect and subtlety. I don't recall what I said to him about that, but I remember teaching him a lesson in subtlety, whereby he learned that preconceptions will trip you up every time. It's anybody's guess as to whether it sunk in.

Some tourists will make a point of putting down what they came to see, and they make sure people hear it. The Texan lady, however, was just unthinkingly garrulous.
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Re: The tourists are back..

Post by Mr.Gumby »

But I hasten to add that it's not just Yanks.
I wasn't suggesting that, different nationalities/cultures bring their own peculiarities though. For better and for worse.
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Re: The tourists are back..

Post by Nanohedron »

Mr.Gumby wrote: Wed May 11, 2022 11:36 am
But I hasten to add that it's not just Yanks.
I wasn't suggesting that, different nationalities/cultures bring their own peculiarities though. For better and for worse.
No, no, I didn't mean to imply that you were singling out Yanks; your international bent was apparent when you mentioned a convoy of the French. I was reining myself in. In my case I can only cite local examples because, being rather a Hobbit, I'm disinclined to travel. But I know from tourists. :)
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Re: The tourists are back..

Post by Lonyy »

I know that tourists are guests, but anyway they should respect the country they want to visit. I would be better to explain it to them in some ways, but I do not know how..
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Re: The tourists are back..

Post by PB+J »

sorry double post
Last edited by PB+J on Mon May 16, 2022 10:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The tourists are back..

Post by PB+J »

We get a lot of tourists in Washington DC in the summer, but it's very different from having your rural idyll disrupted. Of course, my people were compelled to emigrate in order to produce that quiet feeling in the first place.

I can testify that rooms, rental cars and airline tickets are VERY high right now, and lodging is scarce.

I always try to be polite, aware, and un-obnoxious
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Re: The tourists are back..

Post by Mr.Gumby »

PB+J wrote: Mon May 16, 2022 10:35 am
I can testify that rooms, rental cars and airline tickets are VERY high right now, and lodging is scarce.

Car rental companies let go of a large part of their fleet during the pandemic and are now unable to replace the lost capacity. Accommodation wise, a lot of Ukrainian refugees are sheltering in hotels, hostels etc, bringing down availability very considerable. And there is a lot of price gouging going on, on the back of all that. People are staying away because a lot of things are in silly price territory now.

I was in Ennis today for the Fleadh Nua. Numbers are well down, Rowan tree hostel is gone (acting as a refugee centre) as are many other hotel rooms. The remaining hotels charge 'because of the market, scarcity etc' , ah sure what can we do? (well, don't get me started..). I was in Ballyvaughan at the weekend, doing jobs for the Burren marathon. Numbers were down there as well. People looking for hotel rooms were quoted €200 a night over the weekend. Silly stuff. And it's like that all over. And that's before we go into the chaos at Dublin airport, but that's probably a different story again (on my way home someone who had landed on a flight from Ottawa at eleven, phoned in to a radio show. At the time of the call, around three O clock, the luggage from the flight had yet to emerge and the Canadians had ceased being polite arrivals)
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Re: The tourists are back..

Post by Nanohedron »

Mr.Gumby wrote: Mon May 30, 2022 12:09 pm ... and the Canadians had ceased being polite arrivals ...
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