Tourism - Let’s make the most of all we have

The Killarney Racing Festival began yesterday in beautiful summer weather.

This is a welcome change in the midst of our current “summer”, and it affords locals a chance to show off why Killarney is Ireland’s premier tourist destination.

Maybe the thoroughbred racing enthusiasts are not overly excited about the standard of the horses competing, but it is a sporting spectacle, and hopefully Killarney will be able to show its wares in a manner that will help boost tourism for the whole country.

At the end of the month the Irish Open Golf Championship will be played at Killarney and the appearance of US Open champion Rory McIlroy will inevitably attract the international media.

This affords a magnificent opportunity for our tourist interests to promote the country. People should remember that in the midst of the last major recession sport played a great role in promoting this country as a tourist destination.

There were the cycling exploits of Seán Kelly and Stephen Roche in France, Italy and Spain, along with the exploits of the Irish soccer team in Germany and Italy.

The Irish team went to the European Championship in Germany as no hopers.

The Germans took the Irish supporters to their hearts when the team beat England in the first game, and the supporters celebrated throughout the competition, even after losing out on a place in the semi-finals by a freak goal in the dying minutes of the game to the eventual winners of the competition, Holland.

It was not just the performance of the Irish team, but also the behaviour of the Irish spectators that won the hearts of the Germans, who flocked to Ireland in unprecedented numbers the following year.

The same thing happened again a couple of years later after the 1990 World Cup in Italy.

This country saw the first ever influx of Italian tourists.

Maybe it is time that communities around the country put on their thinking caps to come up with ideas to promote themselves.

Last weekend there were few if any spare beds to be had on the Aran Islands, as they were so busy with the influx of tourists.

In the midst of the current downturn, people are not going abroad on exotic holidays, so there are real opportunities to appeal to Irish people to rediscover what we have to offer ourselves. This could be a major step to rekindling our international appeal.

The 2011 Cost of Living Survey — of 214 cities on five continents — published today by consulting company Mercer — found that Dublin has dropped 16 places from 42nd to 58th in the list of the most expensive cities surveyed. Dublin is not as expensive as New York, London, Paris, Rome, or Canberra, but it is more expensive than capital cities such as Washington DC and Ottawa, as well as famous destinations like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and Toronto.

The survey was conducted in March before the introduction of the latest VAT decrease, so prices here are probably that bit more competitive.