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Tourism chiefs target London commuters for Olympic escape

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NY Yankee

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I'm not sure if this is the correct forum-I put it here since it's not 100% rail-related:

TOURISM chiefs are hoping to cash in on the Olympic frenzy by targeting Londoners looking to escape the "madness" of the games.

Around €500,000 is being spent on a marketing campaign in train and underground stations to highlight Ireland as the ideal 'hassle free' destination for UK citizens looking to escape the hordes during the Olympics.

It is expected around 18 million extra journeys will be taken on the London underground, from the opening ceremony on July 27 until the close of the games, on September 9.

In addition to targeting frustrated London commuters, Niall Gibbons, chief executive of Tourism Ireland, said the number of people travelling to London also provided an opportunity to showcase Ireland as a top holiday destination for people from a large number of countries.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/tourism-chiefs-target-london-commuters-for-olympic-escape-3127216.html

I can't imagine why someone would want to leave the greatest country in the world during the Olympics, but if you don't like the Olympics you can take a vacation to Ireland or other countries in Europe.
 
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ChristopherJ

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I can't imagine why someone would want to leave the greatest country in the world during the Olympics
:lol: :lol: :lol:

but if you don't like the Olympics you can take a vacation to Ireland or other countries in Europe.
I'm planning to - got any spare rooms your side of the pond? ;)

I lived in Stratford for three years of my life between 2009 - 2011. The area is a scummy ****hole - probably the worst in the whole of the UK. The only way the Olympics will attract my attention is if someone does drop a bomb on it! Please, god, please...
 

SS4

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It's a fact that not everyone likes the Olympics (the other thread should confirm that :lol:). Outside of the Olympic venues, which only ticket holders may enter, the average person may look forward to road closures, overcrowded public transport and price hikes amongst others.

It's imminently sensible to tempt some of these disaffected people out of the country and Ireland is broadly similar to England in most things - it's going abroad but not going abroad at the same time
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I lived in Stratford for three years of my life between 2009 - 2011. The area is a scummy ****hole - probably the worst in the whole of the UK. The only way the Olympics will attract my attention is if someone does drop a bomb on it! Please, god, please...

The only place you'll be going is to Her Majesty's Pleasure with comments like those during the hallowed Olympics :lol:
 

ChristopherJ

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The only place you'll be going is to Her Majesty's Pleasure with comments like those during the hallowed Olympics :lol:

I really couldn't give a monkey's toss. :lol: This country is "a paradise, where you can do anything you want" - the words of Abu Hamza. :roll:

I have no interest in paying to watch a team of jumped up athletes run around a stadium for two weeks, nor presently to watch a flame be paraded around the country for 8,000 miles - I saw enough flames on sticks being waved around during the London riots...

Talking of bombs, my thought of the day...

21525083.jpg
 
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WestCoast

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To be fair, if you're not inside the venues, then the best view is on TV. It's the same programming as pretty much anyone around the world is going to see, so there's no real benefit of being in London to "soak up the atmosphere". When is London not full of visitors anyway?! It just means the place will be even more crowded.

I can't imagine why someone would want to leave the greatest country in the world during the Olympics, but if you don't like the Olympics you can take a vacation to Ireland or other countries in Europe.

I live closer to Dublin than London in terms of distance...:lol: In some ways, I also prefer the former as a city - definitely more relaxed! For the 85% of us who don't live in Greater London, it will be pretty much business as usual during the Olympics (with some exceptions for other venues). It's a shame the rest of the country can't run a tourism campaign like Ireland for Londonders!
 
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NY Yankee

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:lol: :lol: :lol:


I'm planning to - got any spare rooms your side of the pond? ;)

I live about 2 kilometers from JFK Airport. Maybe I can sublet my house for two weeks...but I would have to ask my parents...lol

I lived in Stratford for three years of my life between 2009 - 2011. The area is a scummy ****hole - probably the worst in the whole of the UK. The only way the Olympics will attract my attention is if someone does drop a bomb on it! Please, god, please...

I'm not that familiar with the neighborhoods in London, but the travel books said that the West End is rich and affluent while the East End is poor and full of immigrants. Is that true?
 

causton

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I live about 2 kilometers from JFK Airport. Maybe I can sublet my house for two weeks...but I would have to ask my parents...lol



I'm not that familiar with the neighborhoods in London, but the travel books said that the West End is rich and affluent while the East End is poor and full of immigrants. Is that true?

Depends how far West you go. If you go south of Uxbridge a lot of the people work at Heathrow doing poorly-paid work; or at least that is my impression from the general area! Stratford is a lot nicer in the last few years but proper east London has its rough bits, mostly north-east IMO :P
 

MidnightFlyer

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I'm not that familiar with the neighborhoods in London, but the travel books said that the West End is rich and affluent while the East End is poor and full of immigrants. Is that true?

You can't really tar any of London's regions with the same brush. The West End around Kensington and Chelsea is affluent, yes, however just a couple of miles away is Acton and Ealing, stark opposites in places. Some areas in the South like Balham are pleasant, however there's also Peckham and Bermondsey not far away. In the East, Tower Hamlets is the least 'English' (by ethnicity) area of Britain, but some parts of the Docklands now look desirable. In the North is Hamstead and Primrose Hill, where quite a few famous names reside, but to be honest there's no area of London I would call 100% pleasant, affluent and well-to-do, aside from maybe Chelsea and Notting Hill.
 

Flamingo

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Another attraction of Ireland is that the £ is pretty good against the €at the moment...

And Sailrail is pretty good value!
 

WestCoast

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I'm not that familiar with the neighborhoods in London, but the travel books said that the West End is rich and affluent while the East End is poor and full of immigrants. Is that true?

To some degree, but that is far too much of a generalisation. I know the foreign media likes to portray an image of "old London town", but London has a population of about 8.2 million people and if you count adjoining areas that swells to over 12 million. Visitors are often surprised just how large and fast paced it actually is. Basically, it's on the scale of New York although less 24/7 (e.g the Tube does close down at night and shops opening all night are not that common).
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I took a look at Wiki. Tower Hamlets looks more like Mumbai than London.

Yet the upmarket (I think it's upscale in the US) apartments of the Docklands are nearby. London often has the poorest living near the richest. I saw less of that in New York, but you will probably know where there are situations like that in your city.

As for Tower Hamlets, London is home to a lot of families from the former British Empire.
 
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wintonian

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Ireland is idealy placed for those that do wish to escape London and the wider country during the Olympics, I think its great if they can make some much needed €'s out of our party poopers and we can pay them back for not joining in the jubilee by sending all the grumpy pepole over. ;)
 

NY Yankee

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Yet the upmarket (I think it's upscale in the US) apartments of the Docklands are nearby. London often has the poorest living near the richest. I saw less of that in New York, but you will probably know where there are situations like that in your city.

Not to cause my own thread to go off topic, but East Harlem (poor area, mostly Hispanic, a few blacks) is right next to the Upper East Side (rich white area).

Anyway, back to discussing vacation plans during the Olympics...
 

ChristopherJ

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I'm not that familiar with the neighborhoods in London, but the travel books said that the West End is rich and affluent while the East End is poor and full of immigrants. Is that true?

No. Definitely not. There are good and bad areas in all regions of London.

In East London, Limehouse is a prime example of how London is divided - in fact the railway (the Essex Thameside route) is the contributing factor between the good and the bad of the area.

North of the railway is Stepney - a dirty, cramp suburb full of degraded council estates and fast food takeaways.

DSC_0028.jpg


South of the railway is Wapping - a heavily regenerated area with gastrobars, pubs and restaurants - which also has magnificent views of the Thames and the Canary Wharf Estate.

wappinghighstreet.jpg


350px-Limehouse_reach_1.jpg


I used to jog through Limehouse and Wapping (who doesn't!?) and to be honest - I actually miss it because it was one of the most pleasant parts of my local area.
 
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:lol: :lol: :lol:


I'm planning to - got any spare rooms your side of the pond? ;)

I lived in Stratford for three years of my life between 2009 - 2011. The area is a scummy ****hole - probably the worst in the whole of the UK. The only way the Olympics will attract my attention is if someone does drop a bomb on it! Please, god, please...

You've never been to Worksop then.........
 

MidnightFlyer

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You've never been to Worksop then.........

Some of us have relatives in Worksop ;)

To be fair though, every sizeable town in Britain has it's good and bad areas, some more so than others obviously. Even places like Buxton and Fort William have undesirable neighbourhoods.
 

causton

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Some of us have relatives in Worksop ;)

To be fair though, every sizeable town in Britain has it's good and bad areas, some more so than others obviously. Even places like Buxton and Fort William have undesirable neighbourhoods.

Oh yes, even in a small village such as Welham Green there are the nice, not so nice, and don't-even-go-there places! :P
 

Mojo

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Yet the upmarket (I think it's upscale in the US) apartments of the Docklands are nearby.
Most of the Docklands are actually in Tower Hamlets. There are also wealthy areas around the boundary with The City and at a few other places (Wapping was mentioned by someone above).
 

Peter Mugridge

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The only place you'll be going is to Her Majesty's Pleasure with comments like those during the hallowed Olympics :lol:

That's probably a more accurate reply than you might think - it was in the papers last week that someone had a visit from the police for simply tweeting a joke that they would aim a water pistol at the torch during the relay when it passed through their town...
 

HowMuch?

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That's probably a more accurate reply than you might think - it was in the papers last week that someone had a visit from the police for simply tweeting a joke that they would aim a water xxxx at the torch during the relay when it passed through their town...

I doubt the police were taking it that seriously, but you can see their thinking. Suppose someone DID mount a protest which turned nasty, and the Daily Hate found out afterwards that the police had been alerted in advance and had done nothing about it....

Goes to show, though that you have to be careful what you publish these days (hence my paranoid XXXXs above). Ironically, those of you old enough will remember that before the Iron Curtain fell, the "patriotic" press would report on Eastern Europe saying that such UnBritish close monitoring of the citizen would never happen in dear old Blighty and just went to show how the Commie system was evil.
 
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