Trust is essential in most relationships. The relationship between a tour group and a tour group organizer is no exception. If you type “Ireland,” “tour,” and “knitting” into Google, you will be offered many tour groups. I write here to caution you against using one of those groups, The Irish Tourism Group (also known as Irish Tourism Limited).
I used Irish Tourism Group to plan a recent 10 day trip to Ireland through my wife’s knitting store. We were a group of 13. I contacted The Irish Tourism Group because it advertised expertise in tours for knitters.
Irish Tourism Group promised us a tour guide or an experienced driver. We got neither. The trip was a success but it was not because of Irish Tourism Group but rather despite Irish Tourism Group.
Irish Tourism promised that we would have a guide or an experienced driver. In April, Irish Tourism unilaterally decided to cancel the guide. Here is what its agent wrote: “I have cancelled the guide. With smaller numbers you don’t really need one as your driver is very experienced and you have guides at each attraction, your own knitting instructors and me around of course.”
There was little truth in this statement. We did not get a “very experienced” guide but rather a young immigrant from Poland whose driving was fine but whose English was mediocre and who knew little to nothing about the places we visited. We did not have guides at each attraction and, in fact, were guide-less at many. The knitting instructors were only around for the first two days of a 10 day trip and our Irish Tourism Group Manager was not to be seen after the first day.
When Irish Tourism cancelled the guide, it reduced the price of the tour by 90 Euros (about 100 dollars) per person. This suggests that the cost of the guide would be about 90 Euros per person. The tour was originally priced for 15-20 participants. We ended-up with 13 participants. If our original tour price with 15 people could have supported a guide and if the cost of a guide was about 90 Euros per person, we could have simply paid an addition amount of about 180 Euros (about $200) for a guide.
I would have gladly paid that amount. Our group never complained about the cost of the trip and would have been willing to pay more for a guide. Irish Tourism did not offer us that choice, however. In fact, Irish Tourism did not give us any choices.
What seems to have happened is that Irish Tourism could not find a tour guide or an experienced driver for our trip. As its representative wrote in a later email, “guides like drivers are golddust this year.” So, instead of giving us options or instead of being honest about the lack of guides/drivers, Irish Tourism just went ahead with the trip by cancelling the guide and promising – but not delivering – an experienced driver.
Your tour is too important to leave to a company that lacks integrity. If you have any questions about this review, feel free to contact me at 248.283.0734.
