Ryanair chief's swipe at Gdansk angers Poland; Irish attack Poland (my title)

Time of London, UK ^ | April 21, 2004 | Russell Hotten

[Murtyo]

POLAND’S tourism authority hit back at Michael O’Leary last night after the chief executive of Ryanair insulted one of the country’s most historic cities.

The outspoken airline boss said there was nothing to recommend Gdansk except a shipyard wall, a reference to the city’s uprising against communism in the 1980s.

He was explaining why he was unlikely to expand Ryanair significantly into Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Republics.

Their peoples could not afford to fly to expensive cities in the West, while the region had little in the way of value for Western tourists, he said.

“Take Gdansk. Who wants to go to Gdansk? There ain’t a lot there after you’ve seen the shipyard wall,” was Mr O’Leary’s blunt summation.

In the 1980s the people of Gdansk helped to overthrow communism, with the famous shipyard and its workers’ leader Lech Walesa the centre of the protest movement.

Eva Binkin, of the Polish Tourist Board, said: “The people of Gdansk are a proud people. They will be very upset.”

According to Ms Binkin, Mr O’Leary has considered on a couple of occasions starting services to the city of Krakow, but decided the numbers did not add up.

“He must know a little about Poland. But it is really annoying that people say things like this (about Gdansk) without even checking,” she said.

Ms Binkin admitted that the historic shipyard uprising had put Gdansk on the map, but said that it had also been something of a millstone. “Gdansk is more than a shipyard. The city has been inhabited since the tenth century.”

The city of 500,000 people received almost 700,000 tourists last year, the majority from Germany and Scandinavia. “The only reason we do not receive many tourists from the UK is that there are no direct flights,” Ms Binkin said.

Ryanair’s public relations unit was last night trying to quell the fire. “I don’t think Michael was intending to insult the people. It was just an example,” said a spokeswoman.

“A service to these places needs two-way traffic. Even if people want to fly to some of these cities, not everyone there wants or can fly to London.”

GDANSK FOR THE MEMORIES

# The city’s “old town” is on the United Nations’ protected list, with Venice and the Egyptian pyramids.

# It is the birthplace of Gabriel Fahrenheit (of thermometer fame), philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, and Günter Grass, the Nobel prize-winning writer.

# St Mary’s Church is the largest church in Poland and the biggest Gothic structure in Europe.

# Much of the city was levelled in the Second World War.

# It was a founder of the Hanseatic League, a confederation of merchant states that made the Baltic the most prosperous part of Europe in the Middle Ages.

[Murtyo]

This is a great reason to see a place "# Much of the city was levelled in the Second World War." - that from the tourist board. This guy - O'Leary - is a great businessman, but about a diplomatic/PC as a drunk Polish lesbian in a Swedish massage parlor.

[dead]

“Take Gdansk. Who wants to go to Gdansk? There ain’t a lot there after you’ve seen the shipyard wall,”

I think there’s also a sort of tall building that has a clock tower.

[Malesherbes]

Well, I've been there. Yes, it was levelled in WWII, but the Poles did a magnificent job in rebuilding it in its original style. It is a very handsome city and well worth a visit. In fact, most of the old Hansa cities along the Baltic have much to recommend them - the sad exception being the former German Konigsberg, now Russian Kaliningrad, which was rebuilt by the Soviets to resemble Irkutsk.

[Redbob]

"It was a founder of the Hanseatic League, a confederation of merchant states that made the Baltic the most prosperous part of Europe in the Middle Ages."

Woohoo, I want to fly there tomorrow!

No, wait a minute:
No I don't.

[macel]

more?

http://www.hla.flensburg.de/projekt/schueler/klassenp/ka-f2-00/bilder/danzig%204.jpg

http://www.hla.flensburg.de/projekt/schueler/klassenp/ka-f2-00/bilder/danzig%2012.jpg

http://www.hla.flensburg.de/projekt/schueler/klassenp/ka-f2-00/bilder/danzig%209.jpg

http://www.hla.flensburg.de/projekt/schueler/klassenp/ka-f2-00/bilder/danzig%207.jpg

http://www.hla.flensburg.de/projekt/schueler/klassenp/ka-f2-00/bilder/danzig%20harbour%209.jpg

http://www.hla.flensburg.de/projekt/schueler/klassenp/ka-f2-00/bilder/amber%20street%202.jpg

http://zbigkurzawa.tripod.com/gdansk.jpg