A tourist planning on visiting Ireland has been quoted over €50,000 to rent a van.
Former Leitrim Councillor John McCartin told Lunchtime Live his brother-in-law was quoted the price when he tried to book his upcoming nine-day trip.
He said you can buy the same van brand-new for €6,000 less.
Not only that, you can book nine helicopter flights for around half the price.
“He was quoted €51,350 for the use of a €45,000 vehicle for nine days,” he said.
“It would have been cheaper actually ... I looked up the car - brand-new, without extras, as most rental cars come - and it would have cost about €45,000.”
Car rental is just one of the problems facing visitors coming to Ireland this summer – with Lonely Planet this month warning tourists about the horrors of holidaying in Ireland.
Meanwhile, hotels have been accused of price gouging and rip-off rates, severely undermining Ireland’s tourism offering.
Brother-in-law quoted over €51,000 for 9 days car rental for his family holiday to Ireland this summer. Presuming he’ll do €150km per day, a helicopter would be a lot cheaper. #RipOffIreland #PriceGouging pic.twitter.com/bzx26M9R4n
— John McCartin (@mccartinjohn) June 15, 2022
Mr McCartin said the vehicle his brother-in-law was enquiring about was a basic model, nine-seater van.
“I said, I wonder how much would a helicopter be?” he said.
“I found that a Robinson R22, which would come fully-fuelled with a pilot to use for 200km per day we’ll say, was only around €3,500.
“So, it was well shy of the price of this nine-seater van.”
He said the situation will simply put people off visiting Ireland.
“It's a very poor message for people involved in a business that is reliant on tourists to be sending out.
“To allow a quote so ridiculous to appear on an aggregator website is very counterproductive to anybody who works in the tourism industry.
“Ireland has this reputation of being a very traditional, rural sort of isolated country but the reality is this is a rich and developed country. It does have all the beauty, it does have all the rural aspect but you are not coming to a third-world country.
“It is not the cheapest place on earth to come to, but it was reasonable and it was worth it. It is one of the most beautiful places to come to; it is worth it to come here but when you send out the message that it will cost you €5,700 per day to rent a plain old van, that’s very counterproductive to our tourism offering.”
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