€1.1 million revenue boost in line for capital
Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport Leo Varadkar and Fáilte Ireland have confirmed that Dublin will host the World Youth and Student Travel Conference (WYSTC) in 2014 which will bring over 800 youth-orientated travel agents and operators to the capital and is expected to generate over €1.1 million in revenue for the city. The announcement was made overnight at the 2013 WYSTC in Sydney with international delegates already looking forward to September 2014 and their arrival in Dublin.
Each year WYSTC travels to a different destination allowing attendees to get first-hand experience of the topics and trends affecting youth and student travel within the host country. In addition to the conference, Fáilte Ireland is organising fact-finding trips for delegates both before and after the event to ensure the operators get a real authentic taste of Ireland.
Welcoming the news, Minister Varadkar said -
“Securing a prestigious event like this is great for Dublin and for Irish tourism. It gives us a real opportunity to showcase Ireland’s huge appeal as a destination, and to encourage operators to promote Ireland to their customers.
“This conference will help us to continue the good work of the Gathering into 2014 and is further evidence that our plans to attract high-profile meetings to Ireland are working. Irish business tourism is in good health and delivering benefits to our economic recovery."
Dublin’s bid to host the event was devised and pitched by Fáilte Ireland’s Dublin Convention Bureau (DCB) and saw off stiff competition from Athens amongst others. Keith McCormack from Fáilte Ireland’s Business Tourism Unit today emphasised –
“With the youth travellers of today becoming the big spending tourists of tomorrow, securing this conference and this elite group of agents will go a long way in attracting more visitors to Ireland in the future.”
Research shows Ireland to be performing extremely well as a conference and business meeting destination. Fáilte Ireland research shows that nine in ten overseas conference delegates registered a “very satisfied” rating for their experience of Ireland as a destination for international conferences and almost 85% say that they would certainly recommend Ireland as a conference destination. Almost nine in ten conference delegates say that they would also highly recommend Ireland as a destination for a holiday or short break and eight in ten say that it is likely that they would return to Ireland for a holiday or short break in the future.
This is important as, on average, international delegates spent over six days in Ireland with nearly a quarter of delegates using the conference to mix business and leisure Almost half the international delegates were from Mainland Europe, with one in five from North America. Britain and Northern Ireland accounted for a quarter of international delegates.
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ENDS
For further information please contact:
Louise Tolerton - Press Officer
086 6086578/01 8847135
Note for Editor
The World Youth Student & Educational (WYSE) Travel Confederation is the world’s largest network of youth and student travel operators. WYSE Travel Confederation is a not-for-profit association dedicated to supporting the global industry and connecting the organisations that serve millions of young people who travel to study, work and grow.
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