Dublin is the business as a working destination

Fáilte Ireland supported conferences have already brought in 40,000 delegates and €52m revenue in first half of this year.

Feedback from Fáilte Ireland’s recent June Business Tourism Initiative shows that 95% of potential buyers would recommend Dublin as a business tourism destination and 89% would propose Dublin’s Doorstep region (Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow) to their clients. During the major marketing initiative, potential buyers were brought to Ireland to view venues for incentive trips, business meetings and conferences. Attendees were subsequently asked for their views of Dublin’s potential as a corporate destination following their trip here.  
Keith McCormack, Head of Business Tourism at Fáilte Ireland, said:
 
“Uniquely in tourism, while all types of leisure visitors dropped, business visitors actually rose last year – by 10%. This is a particular area of potential – and lucrative – growth for our economy. That said, the business tourism sector is a highly competitive arena and we have to market hard and smart to win a good chunk of that business.
 
“For that reason, we are delighted that so many of these key Business Tourism buyers took the time to travel to Dublin to see what we have to offer.   Business Tourism is an extremely important, high yield sector and Fáilte Ireland is working non-stop to promote Ireland as a premier Business Tourism destination.”
 
Fáilte Ireland directly supported 89 international conferences in 2008 and these conferences brought in over 29,000 overseas delegates to Ireland with a revenue yield of almost €36 million to the Irish economy. Importantly, to date this year (to June 2009), Fáilte Ireland has already supported 71 conferences involving 40,000 delegates and €52 million revenue in total.
 
Last month, Fáilte Ireland hosted four separate familiarisation trips for over 60 top international buyers from France, Denmark, United States and Britain as part of their June Business Initiative. For many, this was a first-time visit to Dublin and the East coast of Ireland to sample the best of our business tourism product.  
 
The buyers stayed in a variety of hotels and visited venues suitable for corporate events, incentive trips and conferences - including the new national conference centre, Conference Centre Dublin (CCD), as well as Trinity College Dublin, Castletown House in Co Kildare and the Old Jameson Distillery amongst others.
 
Mr McCormack continued:
 
“Seeing is believing and it is extremely important for highly influential buyers such as these to experience at first-hand what we offer – so they can sell more effectively when they return home, helping to attract more conference clients here – to enjoy what Dublin and the Eastern Region has to offer.”
 
The visits included workshops with the key Irish trade partners, comprised of hotels, venues, destination management companies and the Dublin Convention Bureau.
 
Finding attractive ways to attract new overseas business is important. For example, following the workshop with the UK operators, the Dublin Convention Bureau organised a treasure hunt around Dublin city visiting key meetings and incentive venues. This involved visitors breaking into groups of five or six and then following clues around Dublin by visiting locations and places of interest. This innovative treasure hunt was a fun yet educational way to showcase the city to potential clients. (Photograph attached)
 

Conferences and business tourism – satisfaction ratings

The highly positive feedback from the recent June Initiative mirrors extremely favourable satisfaction ratings in a recent Fáilte Ireland survey of conference delegates to Ireland.
 
This survey recorded high levels of satisfaction from overseas delegates. A total of 86% of respondents expressed themselves to be satisfied or extremely satisfied with Ireland as a destination for conferences while 83% were likely or very likely to recommend Ireland for future conferences.
 
Furthermore, following their business trip here, 87% of the conference delegates questioned said that there were likely or extremely likely to recommend Ireland as a holiday destination. Indeed, 76% of respondents said that they themselves were likely to return to Ireland for a holiday or a short break in the future.
 
The majority of the 457 international conference delegates who completed the survey for TNS MRBI were questioned during the period March-April 2009. A significant amount (40%) had travelled from North America and the majority (69%) were over the age of 35.  There was an even split in respondents between male and female.
 
A full copy of the survey can be accessed at www.irelandinspires.com/trade
 

ENDS

For further information please contact:

Louise Tolerton
Communications Officer - 086 6086578/01 8847135
 

Note for editor

Fáilte Ireland, the national tourism development authority, was established in 2003 to guide and promote tourism as a leading indigenous component of the Irish economy.
 
The tourism and hospitality industry employs an estimated 250,000 people and generates more than €6 billion in revenue a year.
 
Corporate travel and incentive-based tourism is a high yield and growing component of international tourism.  In Ireland this segment of the tourism market has been identified as an area of considerable potential for this country, in particular with the development of the national conference centre, Conference Centre Dublin (CCD). Indeed, in the recent tourism figures from the CSO for 2008, it was the only area which enjoyed a growth in overseas visitors (up 10% from 1.2 million visitors in 2007 to 1.3 million last year). Business tourism overall generated €594 million in 2008.

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