Iceland left in the cold as whaling trade puts tourists off

[spindrifter]

The Times November 02, 2006

By Lewis Smith, Environment Reporter

Tourists are turning their backs on Iceland because the country is resuming commercial whaling, a tour operator claims. Whale watching is one of Iceland’s main tourist attractions, but bookings have fallen 25 per cent in the two weeks since it has resumed hunting.

Yesterday Alp Mehmet, the British ambassador to Iceland, led a delegation of 25 ambassadors from anti-whaling nations to deliver a “strongly worded” letter to the country’s Foreign Affairs Ministry.

The letter urged an immediate end to the whaling, saying: “We repeat our countries’ opposition to this operation and urge the Government of Iceland to reconsider its position and reverse this unnecessary decision, and to abandon its current operations.”

<snip>

Clive Stacey, of Discover the World, one of the biggest operators of tours to Iceland, said that his company organised trips for 7,000 Britons this year, but that in the past fortnight bookings for next year had dropped 25 per cent. The company had expected that bookings would increase by 50-100 per cent.

<snip>

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2433154,00.html

[pitohui]

1. who are they kidding?

it's the price of booze that puts people off, crikey!

i'd go in a heartbeat but the words "liquid ban" combined with "price for a drink in a bar in iceland where you don't smuggle in your own bottle and keep refilling the first glass" equal they are going to have to sell my slot to bill gates!

[Swede]

2. I watched a news article that showed Icelanders shop in Newfoundland.

How expensive is stuff on Iceland when Newfoundland is your shopping Mecca?

[IndyBob]

3. Can't Understand

the insistance on re-starting the whale hunt. What's the motivation?

[AusGail]

4. As much as I abhor whaling

Unfortunately Iceland is not the only country that does not respect all creatures great and small. My country that allows egg production from chickens confined in small cages without being able to perch. Intense farming of pigs where the poor sow cannot even turn around. And our live sheep and cattle exports to the middle east, where if they dont die in transit, the are exposed to extreme cruelty once they arrive.

Only about an hour ago I made a donation to the World Society for Protection of Animals to help save bears being held in pits in Japan. They are held in deplorable conditions and are fed only what the public choose to throw in to them.

You wouldn't know that we are living in the 21st century. Call me a bleeding heart, but I love animals.