DCBA report on tourism

[Boggle]

The were talking about a "Visitor Card" that could be used at all the visitor attractions in Dublin with a significant discount. I`ll see what I find.

That would be a good idea. Especially if you could get one which included public transport for weekends.

[Schuhart]

On which basis, Thoor Ballylee and Joyce Country are presumably now located in D2, because all must be moved there? Heaney, the most rural of poets, all about a city?

Come off it.

Its not so much about him writing about a city. Its about there being an Irish literary tradition, associated with Dublin, which I certainly wouldn't exclude him from. Would you exclude Paddy Kavanagh from an association with the city?

That said, I'm sceptical of there being an enormous unsated thrist for literary tourism in Dublin. I'd also worry that, if it's done with too much packaging, it could be killed off.

For all that, I've no problem in principle with some initiative in that space. I just think it will sound and look phoney if its too twee and if its disconnected from the life of the city. I'd want to know what this centre would be doing that, say, the Irish Writers Centre isn't already doing.

On Dublin tourism generally, I'm an optimist. The city is offering a reasonable product; tourism numbers are holding up in a way that they are not in the West. I think we need to challenge the mindset that Irish tourism is about the rural; consider Cork City gaining the approval of the Lonely Planet guide as the city to visit. What people want is an experience that makes a trip worthwhile, and they find it here.

That's not a call for complacency; the city has more to it than it did twenty years ago, but that's not a reason to stop. Its just a call for confidence that there is potential to be developed here. But I think the initiative will have to come from within the city. National institutions won't want to hear this.