More than 2,000 event professionals, including international event, corporate, agency and association delegations from all over the globe will be in Dublin on Wednesday (28 September) to attend Ireland’s dedicated business tourism showcase, Connect16.
The day-long showcase and experiential event at the RDS will be officially opened by An Taoiseach Enda Kenny, and a key focus of the inaugural Connect16 showcase will be how we best leverage the intellectual capital we have around Ireland to attract international conferences to our shores.
This includes looking at the supports that are currently available through Fáilte Ireland and professional conference organisers to help successfully bid to bring international congresses to our shores.
Connect16 is the brainchild of Nicola McGrane, managing director of leading Irish event specialists, Conference Partners. She said: "Our goal for Connect16 is to underpin Ireland’s position as the go-to destination for national and international congresses and events, and we are delighted to have the opportunity to showcase our country to some of the leading international events professionals as part of it.
"By seeing our world-class infrastructure first hand, and experiencing our people, culture, music, dance, I’m confident that we can continue to grow the sector at a significant rate and attract further valuable international business to our shores."
Business tourism is an increasingly lucrative sector in Ireland. The sector is worth €669m to the Irish economy and growing by an average of 7% year-on-year. The sector is expected to exceed over €700m in 2017.
In 2015, 227,000 international delegates attended conferences and meetings in Ireland. Business tourism also accounted for 1,273m tourists, a 15% increase on 2014.
