RICHARD GILBERT,
A chara, - I have heard and read with interest the recent stories about tourism in Ireland and how it appears to be in a decline. The popular theories are: that the foot-and-mouth crisis of last year has left an after-effect; that Bord Fáilte hasn't enough money to promote the country; that people are more and more afraid to travel; that bad weather is deterring visitors.
But as yet I haven't heard anyone say that Ireland may not be worth visiting any more. That much of our rural countryside is now dotted with ugly housing estates. That Dublin is filthy. That the Shannon and many of the lakes have shown alarming increases in pollution levels. That we are a nation of greedy citizens ready to sell Grandma's gravesite for building sites or to rip off tourists with outrageous prices and surcharges. And the list goes on.
I have seen Bord Fáilte presentations and, naturally enough, they don't mention any of this. They still paint an Ireland of quaint, winding rural roads through fields of sheep with the inevitable comely maidens. But it hasn't taken tourists very long to find out the falsity of such advertisements.
Perhaps it is time someone told the emperor he had no clothes on. Wouldn't Bord Fáilte be well advised to spend some of its money on ensuring that we have a real product to sell? I have yet to hear of its representatives showing up at a Bord Pleanála hearing to protest at further degradation of our beauty and resources. Or am I wrong? - Is mise,
RICHARD GILBERT,
Oughterard,
Co Galway.