Business podcast: May 18th
John Collins talks to Niall Gibbons of Tourism Ireland about state visits and Suzanne Lynch discusses Disney’s Dublin opening. John McManus finds out about DCU’s new enterprise advisory board.
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Smiling in desperation
“Smile!” Agghhhh. Is there anything more likely to elicit inner rage than random male strangers barking completely unsolicited ”cheer up, luv” orders at you when you’re walking down the street failing to look unthreateningly amenable enough for their taste?
Trying to dictate the mood of someone who’s (quite happily, thank you very much) minding their own business is a peculiarly sheer gall, but if you’re unlucky enough to work in certain parts of the services sector, maintaining facial expressions that are deemed appropriately pleasant is part of the terms and conditions of the job, it seems. The days of being quietly perturbed by American “have a nice day” culture are long gone: we’ve started to demand that people who get paid less than us must actually enjoy our custom, or at least go to the trouble of faking it.
In the Irish tourism industry, getting front-line staff to beam at Texan backpackers until their cheeks sag is now part of the current marketing strategy – well, it’s cheaper than actually investing in our tourist attractions. At the last count, there were annual revenues of €4.2 billion hanging on our effervescence as a nation. Desperation has clearly set in: CSO figures for May released last week reveal an 18.4 per cent decline in overseas visits compared to the same month last year. So if you’re an art gallery attendant whose genetic facial inheritance means you always look a little down in the mouth, or a cabin crew member who’s a bit tetchy after serving coffee in six different time zones, Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland have created a handy little attitude-reprogramming website, Ireland Shines, just for you.
Rather confusingly, “be natural” is one of the “behaviours” that tourism workers are to employ in this Ireland of the Welcomes, mark II. It is surely impossible by definition to actually instruct someone to be natural. In any case, being ”natural” can mean a whole rainbow of moods: some people are naturally perky, others need a steady supply of SSRIs to disguise their innate melancholy.
“Be real, genuine, honest – people will sense and appreciate your sincerity,” the website contends. Honesty? Sounds like a mandate for rudeness to me. If I run into those Texan backpackers on their free jaunt to Ireland, I might have to tell them that their wilful ignorance of immigration rules hinted of American imperial arrogance – and, oh yes, can they please send their rich parents over for a fortnight of coach trips instead?
Thankfully, I don’t work in the tourism industry, and no doubt buoyed by that fact, Ireland already manages to do quite nicely in the official friendliness polls published by Tripadvisor. Do we have to go out of our way to be obsequious? Perhaps the next plastic surgery craze might be to get the corners of your mouth fixed upwards so they’re permanently stuck in a biddable grin – better chance of hanging on to your job that way.
Meanwhile, the so-called “Bord Snip Nua” report has recommended a €12 million reduction in the Tourism Marketing Fund and a €15 million slice off Fáilte Ireland’s budget, with a cut of 60 related jobs. It lays off Tourism Ireland only because it is a north-south body, but suggests it should suffer cutbacks too. So much for the tourism bodies’ hopes to actually increase their marketing spend in a bid to bounce Ireland out of the global travel recession faster than other countries – a feat it managed after the post 9/11 dip.
Sure, good manners cost us nothing. It’s just a shame that these days “nothing” appears to be all the tourism authorities can afford.
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The best jobs in the Irish tourist industry?
It was a marvellous marketing wheeze; easy pickings in hindsight. Tourism Queensland this week announced that Ben Southall, a 34-year-old charity fundraiser, had won its “best job in the world” competition. The prize? Living on sandy Hamilton Island for six months, writing a weekly blog about it and getting paid A$150,000 (€85,000) for his trouble. The story was reported as an “…and finally” type item on news programmes all around the world, including RTÉ’s six o’clock bulletin, while Southall’s British nationality no doubt helped it attract extra column inches in what is one of Australia’s key tourist markets.
According to news wire Bloomberg, Tourism Queensland estimates that the A$1.7 million campaign generated more than A$100 million worth of publicity and may help reverse a forecast 4 per cent decline in international visitors down under this year. Since the launch of the competition in January, there are only two countries in the world that its website did not receive hits from: Somalia and South Korea. Pretty much everyone now knows that Hamilton Island is a tropical scuba-diving paradise on the Great Barrier Reef.
Clearly, the stunt can’t be repeated without diluting its headline-generating impact, but it does beg the question: what are the best tourist jobs that Ireland is yet to advertise? (more…)
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From Titanic to Temple Barf: how to keep tourism ticking
Just as the frequent flyers of the western world collectively take one look at their bank accounts and decide that 2009 is the year they will sit out their annual leave with a DVD box set and a bottle of Aldi wine, the Government has announced that it is setting up another high-level group to muse in a high-level manner on the ways in which Ireland can boost its tourism numbers up to, um, a high level.
The Tourism Renewal Group, which will be chaired by ex-Quinnsworth and ex-C&C boss Maurice Pratt, has been asked by Minister for Tourism Martin Cullen to “set out a framework for action” to ensure that our tourism industry doesn’t wither. It’s an important task: last year, tourism accounted for 4 per cent of the Republic’s gross national product (GNP), employed more than 250,000 people and spun revenues of more than €6.5 billion.
So, apart from building, fixing and cleaning public toilets in key tourist destinations, where should the Tourism Renewal Group start? Here are five steps that could keep tourism ticking: (more…)
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