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‘CRACK TEAMS’ OF secret shoppers will be swooping on towns around the country in a covert mission to determine the winners of the 2014 Tourism Towns Awards.
Fáilte Ireland inspectors posing as tourists will visit the towns in the coming weeks, with the winners being announced in November.
The list of towns has already been cut to 10 small towns and five large towns. The small town category is any town under 5000 people and the large town category is for any town greater than 5001 inhabitants.
The award, run by Fáilte Ireland, is exclusive to participants in the Tidy Towns Award.
Fiona Buckley, spokesperson with Fáilte Ireland said: “You can’t be a good tourism town if you’re dirty. It’s about sense of place and pride… a good tourism town needs to be nicely presented”.
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Minister of State for Tourism and Sport Michael Ring said:
“This award is all about recognising Irish towns and villages which are working hard to make Ireland even more attractive for tourists. This important work brings benefits to local communities and local economies across Ireland.”
What are they looking for?
The secret shoppers will be assessing the towns on a number of criteria:
Sense of place – what is distinctive about the town
Local involvement – how involved the community are
Tourism products available – what the town has to offer visitors
Promotion of the town – how the town markets itself as a ‘tourism town’
Is your town going to be inspected? Here’s the shortlist:
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Seriously, how is anyone arguing that €2 per week on €10,000 put away for 3 years is actually a good deal when inflation will be over 2% for the same period.
I get that people dislike Irish banks but this isn’t the correct issue to be highlighting- it just perpetuates the appalling levels of financial illiteracy we have in this country.
Encouraging people to make a less %hitty decision is not good financial advice.
Deposit rates will never beat inflation over the longer term, the entire global financial system is set up to ensure this.
Why not educate people about the benefits of choosing a well diversified low cost investment and actually grow the value of their savings rather than fool them into thinking that 2.46% gross is a good deal.
@RC247: that makes no financial sense when moving it actually saves your money eroding with inflation. Irish banks are scamming you & making money off you by doing so!
@Wombleman: The vast majority of people are never going invest in that way. Most don’t even move their money into an account with a higher interest rate. The banks are making money by sticking peoples money on deposit with the ECB and ripping the average saver off. It should not be allowed.
We desperately need a tax free savings & investments scheme just like the UK ISA system, the Canadian TFSA system or the (unfortunately named) US IRA savings vehicle. In the UK, residents can deposit up to £10,000/yr and earn interest free from tax.
I dont understand why people are still using Irish banks. It is easy enough to open non-resident accounts in other European countries and avail of better customer service, better rates, and lower fees. Also part of the instant SEPA system unlike the Irish banks which are the only EU country yet to sign up to the protocol because the Irish banks deem it “too costly” to upgrade the technological infrastructure. I think the EU deadline was 2021, yet the Irish banks project it will be 2027 until they can partake in the system.
@Niall English: I thought Ireland was a full SEPA member… Do the Irish banks not ‘play the game’?
I didn’t encounter any problems moving my direct debits to a GB or LT Revolut account before it became IE, both with utilities and with credit card, loans, etc.
@Jerry LeFrog: they are a member of SEPA but they do not have capability of the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer Protocol e.g, instant transfer in 10 seconds. Irish bank transfers still take one working day. Its archaic stuff, technological infrastructure needs a serious upgrade and they complain they dont have the funding for this. Be nice to get into the 21st century banking. They were hoping this would be solved with that app they were going to launch together (BOI, AIB, and PTSB) but that got canned a few months ago.
To make money you need money. If you your family and mates can afford a min 100 euro each a month , you better of collectively putting into one investment pot where yous are all equal holders.
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