Sir, – The appropriate authorities seem somewhat surprised that Dublin is losing out to cities like Amsterdam and Edinburgh as a tourist destination.
This suggests some kind of visual appreciation deficiency, as areas of long-term dereliction and decay, littering and bad road surfaces are pretty obvious.
There has to be a recognition that an experience does not just happen – it is the result of an ongoing involvement and commitment of the various stakeholders. Westport and Kinsale (Kinsale and Westport scoop national tourism awards, November 27th) won tourism experience awards and implicit to their success was a sense of place.
While appreciating that these are relatively small and naturally strong on community, it seems Dublin’s sense of place needs to be rediscovered or reinvented. Common denominators in developing and sustaining the character of a city are leadership and vision-for a city as increasingly diverse as Dublin. – Yours, etc, BRIAN ROSS Bray, Co Wicklow.