I ran across this article printed in the magazine “The Week” it is reprinted from “The Irish Examiner”.
Summer’s here: time to fleece the tourists
an editorial
Ripping off tourists used to be a rarity, said the Dublin Irish Examiner. Moneygrubbing was limited to the town of Killarney, known for decades as the one place in Ireland where nobody would stand you a pint.
“I got a particular insight into this” because my mother had a strong New York accent. If one of her Kerry-accented children asked the cost of something in Killarney, the price would be reasonable. But when my mother asked, “the price would go up and she would be bombarded with the ‘God be with ye’ crap. It was staged Irish posturing at its worst.”
Such shenanigans have spread out from Killarney and are popping up all over the land. Many businesses are now charging an extra fee if you pay, as many tourists do, by credit card. And in the changeover from the Irish pound to the European common currency, most stores decided to round up their prices to the nearest euro, making virtually everything a bit more expensive. Dublin used to be the cheapest capital in Western Europe. Now Ireland’s cost of living is the highest in E.U. “We are pricing ourselves out of the tourist marktet.”
Officials say tourist traffic isn’t much below that of last year but that was “a disaster year because of foot-and-mouth and the Sept. 11 outrage.” We can’t let Killarney-style greed take over the whole of Ireland. After all, tourists don’t come here for the weather.
Hmmmmm maybe someday when I can afford a trip to Ireland I still won’t be able to afford a trip to Ireland. I can pull off a pretty good version of Minnesota speak. Ya know like in dat movie “Fargo” dat had nuttin to do with Fargo, ND but now everone tinks we all talk like dat, dontcha know.
I wonder what they would do to a tourist with that sort of accent.
Mary
“They’re not here, and they’re not coming”
[ This Message was edited by: dakotamouse on 2002-08-17 12:14 ]
