The International Congresses and Conventions Association (ICCA) have included Dublin in their list of top 20 destinations worldwide for business tourism.
The ICCA has seen Dublin improve from being ranked 24th in 2014 to 18th last year after hosting 97 international conferences in 2015.
Failte Ireland said that business tourism is one of the highest yield sectors in tourism, worth over €580 million a year to the economy and generates 20,000 jobs in Ireland.
Miriam Kennedy, Fáilte Ireland’s Head of Business Tourism, said: "These solid results reflect the hard work on the ground from everybody involved in Ireland’s conference sector. We are still hungry for more business and have ambitious growth plans for Dublin and regional centres such as Cork, Limerick, Kerry and Galway. Throughout this year we will be chasing every lead and pitching for every potential win to ensure we continue to rise up the rankings”.
DublinLive.ie reports that the top five cities for business tourism in the report were Berlin, Paris, Barcelona, Vienna, and London/Madrid, while Ireland itself increased its ranking by five places to 32 in the separate countries section.
Research conducted by Fáilte Ireland found that business tourists or international delegates are valued at two to three times more than leisure tourists, and on average will extend their stay by nearly three days once their business commitments are fulfilled.
