LATEST DUBLIN CITY NEWS

• “Proposed changes to retail guidelines will cost jobs, compromise main streets and cause more dereliction - An Taisce”

  03-01-2012

  Jobs will be lost and main streets will suffer if Forfas gets its way on Retail Planning  according to a recent An Taisce  Press Release

• Rejuvenating Dublin's Tourism Product

  23-12-2011

  Dublin City Business Association commissioned Jerome Casey and Felim O’Rourke to undertake a study of tourism in Dublin and to make least-cost recommendations for its rejuvenation. The World Tourism Organisation concluded (in relation to Ireland) that "there appears to be very little correlation between marketing spending by National Tourism Organisations and international arrivals". 
  

  Within Ireland, there is a mismatch between the Irish tourism market and the public resources devoted to it. 

  33 existing tourist attractions in Dublin were reviewed, and low-cost initiatives suggested for their improvement.

  From 2000 – 2010 Ireland’s share of world tourism visitors has fallen sharply. In 2004, Ireland changed from being a destination country for incoming tourists to an origin country for Irish, outgoing tourists.

  Dublin must move from passive approval of tourist activities to an active development of tourism as a priority industry in regenerating the city’s economy. 

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

  .

Media in Ireland – Reality and Facts

Tuesday the 4th of August 2009

I would like to thank you for the massive response to my April mailing which led to 2 newspaper articles, 4 radio shows and 1 TV appearance.  I believe the media understood, responded ..., but have now reverted to type - Headlines sensationalist and Good News buried!  If we cannot change the media in Ireland then I ask everyone to dig deeper.  Dig behind the headlines.  Go to the source (see below).  Unbalanced reporting skews the facts, affecting Ireland Inc.
 
The Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) has just released its latest “Economic Outlook Report”.  Headline figures for growth forecasts are as follows:
UK                2009      -4.3%     *     2010     0.0%
USA              2009     -2.8%      *     2010     0.9%
Eurozone     2009      -4.8%     *     2010     0.0%
Japan           2009      -6.8%     *     2010     0.7%
OECD          2009      -4.1%     *     2010     0.7%
World           2009      -2.2%     *     2010     2.3%
 
Furthermore, look at this direct quote from the OECD’s report: “IT LOOKS LIKE THE WORST SCENARIO HAS BEEN AVOIDED”.  Now wouldn’t that make an excellent headline? 
- Perhaps last week's headline could have been "IRELAND SHOWS SIGNS OF GROWTH" (Industrial output across Europe fell in April, but figures for Ireland showed a rebound with industry producing 3.8pc more than it did in April 2008).
- Perhaps tomorrow's headline might be "IRELAND STILL 2ND RICHEST COUNTRY IN EU"  (Ireland was still the second richest country in gross domestic product per capita terms after Luxembourg in the European Union last year, despite being one of the first in the 27-nation bloc to go into recession. The European Union's statistics office said Ireland's GDP per capita was 140% of the EU average).
 
As a footnote, I’ll comment that I use what’s known as a news aggregator which monitors, gathers and compares news from around the globe.  Here’s a sample of the latest headlines for “Finance News”.  (See if you can spot the odd one out…)
Forbes.com                      –   Fed offers cautious hope (1 hour ago)
Business day                    –   First growth in two years OECD (3 hours ago)
The News International     –   Bottom of recession near: OECD (9 hours ago)
Japan Times                     –   OECD cuts projection of ’09 GDP fall to 6.8% (10 hours ago)
RTE Online                       –   OECD’s Irish forecast gloomiest yet. (14 hours ago)
 
Facts are facts and sentiment is sentiment. Perhaps the media could have chosen to point out the fact that in April they Headlined the 'facts' that the Irish economy would shrink 18% and unemployment rise to 17% by the end of 2010.  They're now headlining the bad news that the economy will shrink by 13.5% and unemployment might rise to 15.5%...
 
Please look deeper, don't just believe the Irish media. The best way out of the recession and to repay the national debt is to be positive, look forward, grow the economy... looking at the glass half full rather than half empty will help us join the rest of the world in a faster recovery... and if you want to see the Good News (updated every week) please go to our Good News Corner (www.brightwater.ie).  
 A Managing Director of an Irish Company