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A LOCAL AUTHORITY has been accused of blatantly “ripping off” tourists by charging €99 to allow people to watch the sunset with a box of craft items from atop the country’s most popular natural tourist attraction.
The Cliffs of Moher Experience, a visitors centre run by Clare County Council, has priced its “enchanting evening experience” as such, while providing customers several locally made goods in a ‘Crafted in Clare’ box.
The “bespoke” box includes a photograph of the landscape, chocolates, lip balm and two types of soap.
It’s the latest point of contention in the north Clare area, as locals have previously hit out at their council over a range of new measures which they say are prioritising profit over community welfare.
The area is extraordinarily popular, with 1.1m patrons visiting the Cliffs of Moher last year according to the council’s estimates.
This latest tension comes as the council unveils its Cliffs of Moher Strategy 2040 which it says will make the cliffs more than “just a photo-stop”, by creating a “paced emotional journey” and “wilder, back to nature experience” along the towering rock.
The new package was defended by Clare County Council which said the package, launched in recent weeks, was a “high-end offering” that demonstrates a commitment to “sustainability” while also being “not for profit”.
But one local bed-and-breakfast owner told The Journal that it risked leaving a “sour note” with unaware tourists after they discover they’re being “ripped off”.
Éimhín Miller said the package was “brazen of the council” and said she discovered about it only in recent days.
She pointed to how the cost of using the visitors centre is €12.50 and that using the pathways leading to the cliffs from non-council owned entrances can be as little as €3.
“I had an English couple staying with me and told me as they were setting out that they had ‘booked the sunset at the cliffs’.
“I really thought they were joking but it turns out they were paying €198 altogether for the experience. I couldn’t believe it.”
Miller said many tourists may Google how best to watch the sunset at the Cliffs of Moher, which will lead to the Enchanting Evening Experience near the top of the results page.
“They’re not even guaranteed the sunset,” Miller said.
When contacted by The Journal, Clare County Council said the package was introduced in July as a “pilot product” in response to demand from tour operators seeking a “unique, high-end offering that aligns with the Cliffs of Moher Experience’s commitment to sustainability”.
It added that at the end of the current tourism season, the council will assess the success of package and decide whether to continue offering it in future.
The council said that it has allowed it to recognise the importance of supporting local businesses and driving economic benefits to the Clare region.
Outlining what it said were “some key aspects of the package”, it said it allows a tailored experience for visitors during non-peak hours.
“It allows our customer service agents to provide more attention to visitors and enables visitors to enjoy more private moments in the natural beauty of the Cliffs,” a spokesperson said.
Local artisans also benefitted from the package with each “carefully chosen to showcase the craftsmanship and sustainability ethos” of County Clare.
“Each product in the box has a unique story and connection to the local community,” the council’s statement continued.
“We are committed to sustainability, and the Crafted in Clare box is a testament to this commitment. The box itself is made by a local carpenter and features gold embossing with the Cliffs of Moher logo.
“It comes in a sustainable and reusable hessian bag with the Crafted in Clare logo, further branding County Clare as a hub for quality craft products.”
Miller said it was the latest example of the council increasing opportunities to “make a commodity of what’s a natural site” in the famous cliffs.
“I just find it very opportunistic. We’re business owners who are accommodating tours, an you know yourself if you go to another country and if you think you’ve been ripped off, it just leaves really sour note. That’s the last thing that we want people leaving North Clare feeling.”
The criticism comes as a new masterplan for the re-development of the Cliffs of Moher visitor attraction will deliver a projected €36m in annual revenues for the tourist operation and employ more than 300 people.
The re-development is to deliver a new ‘world class’ visitor attraction and the implementation of the 2040 Cliffs of Moher Strategy “will deliver a more profitable and more robust operation for the future”.
It proposes making the Cliffs of Moher more than “just a photo-stop”, instead aiming to create a “paced emotional journey that maximises the exhilaration of the final cliff view”.
However, it also criticised current visitor facilities and outlined the development of a new ‘gateway’ building and the conversion of the existing visitor centre into an interpretative hub.
There are also proposals for a new footbridge and a new cliff edge walk that includes a variety of new engineered viewing platforms to bring visitors over the cliff edge where views are particularly dramatic.
Additional reporting by Gordon Deegan
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This is why we need to leave the EU!!
@Simp Cuckington: quite the opposite, in fact.
Thankfully we only have a few vocal cranks who don’t believe in the scientific facts. A pity social media gives them a voice.
@Fozz: it would be nice if we could silence sheople like yourself
@Simp Cuckington: the world and the EU does not revolve around the UK and Brexit. Delighted to see that the European Council only spent ten minutes on Brexit. Everyone is fed up with the angst of Boris and his Tory party chums who claimed that they held all the cards.
@Simp Cuckington: The anti science tin hat brigade is out in full force. Tin hats believe anything made by some guy in his bedroom on YouTube is fact. so gullible
@Simp Cuckington: isn’t amazing that the only people constantly trotting out the same lines are the same ones that accuse others of being sheeple, or some other ridiculous derivative?
@Leitrim303: Now is your opportunity to enlighten us tinfoil hats with some science, I am sure these guys would love to hear from you
https://clintel.org/
p.s. they don’t operate from their bedrooms
@John Kennedy: https://climatefeedback.org/evaluation/letter-signed-by-500-scientists-relies-on-inaccurate-claims-about-climate-science/
According to Dutch broadcaster Pointer (KRO_NCRV), the 800 “scientists, scholars, and professionals” that support CLINTEL have “conducted little to no climate research”. DeSmog analysis has found that the list of signatories includes a commercial fisherman, a retired chemist, a cardiologist, and an air-conditioning engineer, alongside a number of retired geologists.
The Climate Intelligence Foundation (CLINTEL) is a Netherlands-based climate science denial group founded in 2019 by retired professor of geophysics Guus Berkhout and journalist Marcel Crok.
Additionally, research by Follow the Money and the Platform Authentic Journalism, two Dutch investigative journalism sites, and data-journalism broadcaster Pointer (KRO-NCRV), found that oil money built up from the 1990s has filtered its way into the foundations of CLINTEL. [16]
An article on Follow the Money’s site explains that Guus Berkhout founded the Delphi Consortium, a company that develops geo-imaging technology for the oil and gas industry, in 1982. Over 30 fossil fuel organisations were committed to paying €30,000 to €55,000 per year to have access to Delphi’s research, including Shell, BP and Chevron.”
https://www.desmogblog.com/climate-intelligence-foundation-clintel
@Oisín Callan: I find no evidence in the quoted article to dispute the claim by Clintel, perhaps you could point it out to me, incidentally any comment from anyone associated with the Climate Research Unit should be taken with a large pinch of salt.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climatic_Research_Unit_email_controversy
Desmogblog… yup, a truly reliable source
@John Kennedy: Literally the first link in my comment is to a systematic debunking of every unsourced talking point in the clintel declaration by actual climate scientists, not cardiologists and fishermen. I’ll post it again in case you missed it:
https://climatefeedback.org/evaluation/letter-signed-by-500-scientists-relies-on-inaccurate-claims-about-climate-science/
If you’re going to try post wikipedia articles as some kind of “gotcha”, try actually reading them first.
“Fact-checkers confirmed that climate change deniers misrepresented the contents of the emails.”
“Eight committees investigated the allegations and published reports, finding no evidence of fraud or scientific misconduct.”
“Desmogblog… yup, a truly reliable source”
More reliable than a think-tank funded by the oil industry. They even listed their sources at the bottom of the article so you don’t have to take their word for it.
@John Kennedy: hahahahaha actually read that wikipedia article and the whole way down you will see that it repeatedly shows that climate deniers misrepresented what was contained in the emails and took sentences out of context to give them meanings they never had. If anything you have just cited evidence of the credibility of the Clinate Research Unit, a large scale hack and 8 subsequent investigations uncovered no actual evidence of scientific misconduct
@John Kennedy: Here’s a good video which looks at the CRU email quotes in context:
https://youtu.be/7nnVQ2fROOg
@Oisín Callan: Watch this prof take apart the co2 argument in front of congress using facts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofXQdl1FDGk
The Great Reset
@Mike Burry: the great flying tinfoil monster
@DJ François: how can it be a conspiracy if the world economic Forum aka the davos summit and the UN are actively promoting it.
@Mícheál Seán Mac Conmhaic: Actively promoting the “great reset”?
@DJ François: The World Economic Forum have a podcast talking all about the Great Reset, its on Spotify you should give it a listen (seriously)
There is no tax on airline fuel
@Pete Lee: hopefully flying for business meetings will be a thing of the past now and commuting will be permanently reduced. People do need protein though so they shouldn’t come down so hard on meat and dairy which are essential for our health, while cars, which have enormous emissions during manufacture and use and are mostly unnecessary get a free pass because the EU is controlled by Germany. There’s a reason they built roads not more efficient rail for us.
@SC: we had loads of rail and we got rid of it
@Pete Lee: can’t tax airline fuel they couldn’t compete with oil rich nations where the stuff is consumed like its fresh air because it’s so cheap
Growing imimirgrant population all striving to gets jobs driving to pay for energy to heat their dwellings in a cooler climate, guess we’ll have to go nuclear for the future
@Gerard Heery: The energy cost of individuals is negligible compared with that of industry. That is why it is important for society to act as a whole in terms of energy efficiency
As for nuclear power we should at least be able to debate the possibility. The technology has come a long way since the likes of Sellafield
@David: then why is it a us negligible individual s pay for it the most
@Gerard Heery: Do you mean as tax payers? Businesses pay taxes too. While as a percentage of there income its significantly less overall businesses tax returns account for the vast majority of the finances available to a country
The idea of companies or the rich paying more is a different debate though tax rates do not fluctuate a lot from country to country.
But personally I think cleaner air and a cleaner environment benefits everyone
Install solar panels on every roof of every home built…. or in desert areas for alternative power supply…investment is essential.
@Eddie Michael: You really don’t know anything about solar panels. do you?, in 2019 in the EU28 solar panels operated at 12.7% efficiency
Source https://edmhdotme.wordpress.com/the-excess-costs-of-weather-dependent-renewable-power-generation-in-the-eu28w/
based on data from https://www.eurobserv-er.org/
@Eddie Michael: Great idea! And not that expensive, I also think local turbine areas and hydro energy converters that provide power to whole towns would be a great shout, provide a lot of jobs in places they’re sparce and hopefully get more people out into the country
@John Kennedy: Fossil fuel plants are about 33%-37% with out factoring the energy spent in extracting and transporting them not to mention the cost of cleanup including the removal of waste etc.
@John Kennedy: 12.7 % of the sun’s energy is a lot…
@SC: No, that would be 12.7% of their rated output.
@Francis Devenney: No, conventional power plants (fossil fuel) operate at 90% rated capacity.
@John Kennedy: We’re talking about efficiency (Your OP) not capacity. A 100 watt incandescent light bulb runs a nearly full capacity but is less than 10% efficient as most of the input is lost in heat rather than light. In fossil fuel plants about 70% of the input is wasted, as in not converted into energy output.
This is really brilliant news on paper and I’d be really excited about it but I have a feeling our government is gonna use this to tax the pollox off us.. I hope they realise they can’t actually tax us out of our emissions, they gotta make green options much cheaper and WIDELY available if they really wanna take this off the ground. I think we should invest heavily in green energy, if we’re smart enough we could provide clean power the whole island with some left over to sell and share with the rest of the world, our little island nation has a lot of potential to be a real world player in the next 10 years if we make the right moves sooner rather than later
@Dylan Byrne: of course it is. The EU wants to buy more weapons and build up its armies. There are no policies in place to tackle wasteful use of resources (personal cars, excessive consumption, planned obsolescence) and distinguish them from essential activities like farming. It just means EU corporations will ship their manufacturing to poor countries and raise taxes on normal people. Overall global climate will be unaffected.
@SC: gulp
Let’s hope the greens are gone. More carbon taxes on the way.
As someone who has tried organizing a group “do” at a restaurant, I applaud 27 people agreeing on anything.
But while 55% sounds decent on the surface, using 1990 as the benchmark is bitterly disappointing.
@Amiga Ireland: and it seems that they use the 1990 baseline because that been agreed on the Kyoto-Protocol and they are using it since then. Makes sense to have everyone measuring against the same baseline. But they should update it.
@Amiga Ireland: it is the benchmark universally used.
have your say