But Jim, how much knowledge does a holiday give you about a country's economic realities? Imagine if Americans started pontificating about Ireland, based on their holiday experience? (An example: in the depths of the crash a couple of Dutch friends told me they thought Ireland was really doing ok, since when they left their hotel and walked around the Grafton Street area lots of people were sitting outside cafes eating and drinking wine and coffee. Of course one class was doing ok; but this was not true of most people.)