NEWS FROM THE CELTIC LEAGUE
Despite what you see and hear and any impression you may have had apparently according to the DED (Tourism section) the Isle of Man is enjoying a record growth in tourism.
Visitor numbers have gone up for the seventh year in a row and apparently an income of £110 million has been generated.
You would imagine in these circumstances tourism related business, public houses and the general retail trade would be booming. Instead of that a lot of tourist accommodation and public houses look ‘a bit down at heel’. Obviously given all this prosperity we will not need to provide future grant aid and support indeed one would hope that existing grants would be cut.
Why should a sector that according to DED is doing so well be propped up with funds when the rest of us have to suffer austerity?
Given that these increases in numbers are now in there seventh year you would also think that air services would be expanding and prices both for ferry and airlines would be coming down as both airlines and the Steam Packet enjoy the boom.
If you look at air passenger figures this year does show an increase. But the numbers are still below the peak in 2005 and then they fell steadily until 2010 recovered slightly in the next two years but only started back towards the 2005 level latterly. So where’s all this growth. Oh and is the airport running a profit these days it never did not even when we reached that 800,000+ passengers in 2005.
https://www.gov.im/…/december-and-year-end-2015-air-traffic…
That Ann Reynolds, she’s a star; I knew our tourism fortunes would revive when she was made Director of Ports.
I bet Douglas Corporation is embarrassed by the news especially after admitting they have been running the horse trams at a loss. Obviously something was wrong with there marketing because all these extra tourists DED say have been coming surely would have had a ride on the tram. Anyway fortunately Phil is going to save the horse trams and the pier at Ramsey is also being refurbished. I expect it will be thronged with tourists when it reopens.
Anyway I will take the government at its word the tourism sector is booming so no handing out wedges of our cash to it and its past time OFT got of their backsides because if Steam Packet and the Airlines are making all this cash its time prices came down. Don’t hold your breath!
Another possible bonus is that you may be able to offer home stay all year round very handy at a time when ordinary households are severely impacted by rises in energy costs and prices.
Finally, given that this is just the latest in a series of good news stories i.e. ‘30 years of growth, deflation, high employment, not enough workers so we need to relax the permits’ etc we won’t have to listen to the Chief Minister having his daily moan on, what seems to be a mandatory slot, in the Newsroom at Manx Radio. Now that will be a bonus we can all enjoy!
BERNARD MOFFATT
Issued by: The Celtic News
06/02/16
THE CELTIC LEAGUE INFORMATION SERVICE.
The Celtic League established in 1961 has branches in the six Celtic Countries. It promotes cooperation between the countries and campaigns on a range of political, cultural and environmental matters. It highlights human rights abuse, military activity and socio-economic issues
