Our tourist board is freaking out.

[Rockdolphin]

The Irish tourist board is freaking out about the number of Irish people turning their back on the country and heading abroad at every given opportunity. The airports are crowded every Friday as people scramble to get a few days away from this ever increasingly expensive prudish puritanical state.

The tourist board are so alarmed they have started a huge campaign to try pursued people not to go abroad. The main thrust of this campaign are negative TV adds highlighting the hassle of using Irish airports and airlines just to get away for a few days. Instead the adds try to imply you'd be better off staying in Ireland. But the fact is people are sick and tired of spending leisure time on a grossly expensive rain sodden island where they can't even smoke in peace and are increasingly being bullied by a nanny state hell bent on making the populace feel guilty for eating and drinking anything other than veggie meals and fruit drinks.

[Mark]

According to all official government and media sources the irish tourists industry is having bumper time with record amounts of visitors. Of course we here know this is complete bullshit. Hotels are losing fortunes and closing down or having mysterious fires. Only last week U2 who own the upmarket clarence hotel admited it is losing millions and another hotel closed down in dublin turfing all the guests and staff onto the road.

[chris]

Would there be any use in sponsoring a wriite-in campaign and having all those people let the tourist board know why they don't want to stay home?? I've notified them as a foreigner that I won't be spending my (ever-shrinking) dollar in Ireland. Even sent them a postcard from Scotland befroe darkness descended there...

[harleyrider1978]

we have to do the same thing here, go out of state to find a place to enjoy and relax......like a smoker friendly restaraunt in kentucky.................tennessee is for the byrds since the democrats got in.......

[emma]

a dublin hotel went into liqudation two weeks ago turfing all the staff and guests out onto the street.......it was on the news and one tourist said......it was his first and last visit to ireland......an expensive way to find out the shithole of a country ireland is

[Mark]

Yes emma i saw that. The hotel was the ballymun plaza. What a laugh

[Rockdolphin]

This is becoming quite a farce, some of the bodies and quangos with responsibility for tourism have been trying to claim record amounts of tourists to justify their fanciful and expensive ad campaigns while others faced with the reality of layoffs and business closures throughout the whole sector are bemoaning the disastrous tourist situation.

[bella]

i use to love going to ireland for a week or two twice a year before the smoking ban no way now as ireland set up the rest of europe to bring in ban you should have fought harder against this dictatorship all pubs and hotels should have shut up shop until they came to a compromise

[emma]

well bella they are shutting up for good now for lack of custom........precisely for the reason they allowed this ban in and did not fight back