Michelle McGroarty - Dublin Tourism Centre
I START at 10.15am, which is great because I get a lie-in. I walk in from Ranelagh and the first thing I do is check the rosters to make sure everyone’s in and no one is sick.
We have an information office and a shop, and I look after the shop side.
We specialise in souvenirs, everything from a €2 key ring to a piece of Newbridge Jewellery for €60. We get a lot of student groups in and they’d spend, on average, €10 each.
I’ll spend some of the morning receiving deliveries, checking them off and entering the items into the system before putting them out on display.
People usually go to the information desk if they’ve a question but they’ll ask us in the shop too. Mostly they are looking for recommendations about what to see. If a queue builds up on the info desk I’ll go over and help out. We’ll sort people out with maps and point out the main places to visit.
If they are staying for three days or more they very often want to take a trip out of the city. Wicklow is the most popular option but increasingly visitors are asking to see the Cliffs of Moher too. We give them a run-down of all the day-trip operators and when they choose we’ll book their seat.
If they’re hiring a car they might want us to book accommodation for them while they tour the country. Tourists particularly love BBs and we can book those too.
The comment I hear most often is what a lovely city I’ve got and how friendly the people here are. It’s lovely to hear. I love travelling myself so I always want tourists to have the best holiday they can while they’re here.
For lunch I’ll go to the cafe we have upstairs or nip out to Munchies across the road. Then I’ll walk around the block for fresh air. I’ve 45 minutes for lunch which means I can leave at 5.45pm.
In the afternoon if it’s quiet in the shop I’ll do some ordering. At the moment our top seller is magnets.
Since the baggage allowances have gotten smaller people don’t want anything big or heavy in their luggage so we spend our time looking for things that are small and light. We have a fluffy sheep that costs €3 that is another huge seller.
The only time it gets stressful is in summer when the queue gets long and you want to serve people as quickly as possible. Most of the time, however, it’s a very enjoyable job.
You’d have to be a people person to work here. One man asked me where he should go to see leprechauns – real ones! Of course I couldn’t laugh and I had to explain to him that they are fictional creatures but I was looking around for the hidden camera.
In conversation with SANDRA O'CONNELL