Dublin Case Study

Task- The role of visitor attractions in Dublin, Ireland.
Collect information of the visitor attractions in a city of your choice then compare and contrast
this city with Dublin in terms of visitor attractions, noting differences and similarities.
Looking at London, another capital city in the UK, there are many similarities in the two cities. From
the likes of the arts like Tate modern to the national history museum for history and the numerous
different English pubs London has to offer, there also seems to be something for everyone in London
as well as Dublin.
Looking at the graph inserted from Visit Britain, visitor numbers into the UK are rising and London
appears to be reaping the benefits from this. I think
that London is a more established city and tourists tend
to come to see the heritage of the country, especially
the royal family. The top five attractions in the UK in
2012 were all in and around London, which shows its
importance to the UK Tourism Economy.
Like Dublins Guinness and Old Jamesons factory tours,
London offers certain USPs like Buckingham palace, the
London eye. There are many premiers set in Leicester
square as well a film festivals throughout the year just
like the one in Dublin.
I think that London offers greater transport links with
the likes of the numerous airports with international
departures and arrivals daily and rail links with the rest
of mainland UK, presents an easier route to get there.
However with the rise of the Low cost airlines, especially Ryanair, Dublin is easily accessible for most
of Europe and beyond now.

Evaluate the portfolio of visitor attractions in Dublin, identifying the strengths and weaknesses.
Dublin is an ever increasing popular choice for tourists coming from across Europe and America.
Being the capital city of Ireland, the city appeals to the majority of tourists as they really do have
something for everyone. One of the biggest strengths for the centre of Dublin especially is its rich
pub heritage. James Joyce once said A good puzzle would be to cross Dublin without passing a pub.
The city is known to have many tour operators that organise specific pub crawls to many of the citys
most famous pubs. On the theme of pubs and tours, Dublin offers two well-known factory tours of
the Guinness storehouse and the Old Jameson Distillery. These two attractions are hugely important
to Dublin as they hold a large share of the cities international reputation and they are unique
experiences only available in Dublin.
The Main problems with the majority of Dublins tourist attractions is the numerous redevelopments
that have occurred across the past few decades. Many tourists and locals alike feel that it is
becoming increasingly harder to differentiate between the authentic entertainment and that which
is packaged for the tourist. Although tourists still rave about their Dublin experience, it may not be
as genuine as they first believe. From the case study, it stated that a lot of the new museum
buildings that try to show Dublin and Irelands heritage often attract disappointing visitor numbers
given the large volume of tourists in the city.
Temple Bar
Strength -Temple bar is a great example of how an area infiltrated with pubs and clubs can
make an attraction a great part of the culture of the city. Described as Dublins Cultural
quarter (Dublins Top Visitor Attractions, 2002), Temple bar represents an area of
contemporary arts and cultural practises. Temple bar attracts but tourists and locals alike to
the three weekly markets which encourages tourists to check out all the local pubs and arts
that are going on that day.
Weakness -Although, with all the pubs and clubs that the temple bar area has to offer, it
also attracts a livelier crowd of people searching for an enjoyable nightlife. With the ever
increasing cheaper airfares, Dublin has become an accessible stag do and hen do weekend
option and this has caused some other types of tourists to stay clear of temple bar on the
weekends as they know the trouble that this can cause and the behaviour of these tourists
looking for the nightlife scene.

Using examples, discuss the role of visitor attractions in Urban tourism in the USA and Europe.
Urban Tourism - is the set of tourist resources or activities located in towns and cities and
offered to visitors from elsewhere. (IQM, 2000)
Visitor Attractions play a huge part in urban tourism throughout Europe and the USA. After reading
Kate Appletons article on the top ten visitor attraction in Europe, according to the Turkish ministry of
Tourism (2012) the Night bazaar in Istanbul attracts 15,000,000 visitors a year. From this article this
makes it the most visited attraction in Europe with 9 out the top 10 attractions being in capital cities
as well. This shows the major role that urban tourism plays in Europe as these attractions entice
many tourists to visit cities in Europe and to boost urban
tourism figures. This is helped with increased support of rail
links throughout Europe and the low-cost airlines flying from
city to city for a fraction of the price we used to pay. This
proves the same in America, with the graph presented on the
right. It shows the real cost per mile of air travel from the peak
of $32 in the 1980s to the next thirty years where it has more
than halved to $15 in 2011. In 2012, April Orcut wrote an
article on the top ten visitor attraction in the USA and the
results proved the same as Europe. The number one visitor
attraction in 2012 was Times Square in New York. This goes to
show what an impact this has on urban tourism in New York as
millions on tourists come to new York each year to visit times
square and then go searching the rest of the city as well.
http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/europes-most-visited-tourist-attractions/
www.visitbritain.org.uk
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/02/how-airline-ticket-prices-fell-50-in-30-years-
and-why-nobody-noticed/273506/
http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/americas-most-visited-tourist-attractions

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Task- The role of visitor attractions in Dublin, Ireland.

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