Fáilte Ireland's business team has travelled to London to pitch for new UK business worth up to €58 million for the Irish economy.
The team is promoting Ireland as a world-class destination for hosting conferences, meetings and events at its annual "Meet Dublin in London" event.
Fáilte Ireland is also focussing on promoting regional Ireland, with convention bureaux representatives from Galway, the Shannon region, Cork and Kerry attending the event too. The national tourism development authority is aiming to win conferences worth €31 million for locations outside of Dublin this year, which would be a 15% increase on the figure for last year.
A Priority Sector
Fáilte Ireland has identified business tourism as a priority sector as it helps businesses prepare for Brexit.
Head of commercial development at Fáilte Ireland Paul Mockler commented, "As we prepare for Brexit, central to our work is selling Ireland as a business tourism destination to the UK market, which has always been a strong market for us in this area of our work. The annual 'Meet Dublin in London' event is a key driver in generating major UK business. We are pushing regional Ireland as part of our work to drive more conferences and events to the regions to ensure we maximise the returns from this lucrative market. Last year was a record year for tourism, with the sector generating €7.8 billion in revenue and supporting 260,000 jobs. Business tourism is fundamental for the growth of the tourism sector as a whole, particularly in supporting a longer season for many businesses, as conference delegates typically arrive outside the summer months."
According to Fáilte Ireland, business tourism is currently worth at least €760 million to the Irish economy and supports 22,000 jobs.
Fáilte Ireland is working on growing the sector over the next six years to bring the value of business tourism to the Irish economy to over €1 billion.
© 2019 Hospitality Ireland – your source for the latest industry news. Article by Dave Simpson. Click subscribe to sign up for the Hospitality Ireland print edition.
