howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
the cruise companies run the buses, canterbury, london and locally.
they promote the tours that earn them the most, the customers know no difference.
we get a lot of the crew in town.
if there was a solution, i think roger would have found one by now, he has tried every avenue.
Ok, I'll give up and wait for Roger then.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
sid
you are being difficult for the sake of it.
everybody has tried to get more business from the cruise passengers, years ago there was a cruise ship welcoming group(all volunteers) that manned the terminal and gave advice to people.
the leader (forget his name) moved up to the north east about 5 or more years ago.
since then roger has tried but been told that he was not allowed to approach passengers disembarking.
what more can anyone do?
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
There are four buses (not coaches) that are owned and used by a local man - not anything to do with cruise companies or their contracted coaches that take people away from Dover.
He has a concession to sell Castle entrance tickets on his bus, so before they get to the Market Square, they have already alighted at the Castle. This shows entrepreneurship at his best - but worst for Dover Town and the businesses here.
There is still a Cruise Welcome Group that hand out leaflets and until recently I was advised that they were told not to be pro-active, but re-active and wait for the cruise passengers to come to them behind their desk. I used to get very frustrated (for Dover) at this, but have been told that this is not now the case.
I don't actually know if this is true as I'm not allowed to be down there, but I may have been able to as DBS Manager.
I do believe that there is much more that could be done - in Dover and in the cruise terminals, but not at the cruise terminals on "turnaround" days, just "port of calls".
DHB said there could be a giant board at the cruise terminal promoting local historic sites and attractions as well as the businesses. The Discover Dover leaflet I produced would have been perfect for this as it had good images and text for the various sites and businesses.
Again, as an individual, I can do nothing - that's why I would never have resigned as DBS Manager.
Roger
I'm not being difficult Howard, petulant maybe. I make a suggestion and you kindly advise me that Roger will have thought of all the possible solutions, a claim incidentally he isn't making himself. To suggest "every avenue" has been tried is quite simply facile. There is ALWAYS another way, we just need to think of what else can be done, and possibly try a few. Nothing wrong in suggesting that surely?