DUBLIN AND KILLARNEY have beaten out London and Edinburgh in a bid to host a major corporate meeting.

This comes as part of an announcement from Fáilte Ireland that it intends to use a new corporate meeting fund to attract businesses to hold their events here.

This first major success for the ‘Corporate Meeting Supports’ initiative will see an event being held here by a major US insurance company.

The event is expected to bring €9 million into the Irish economy with 2,000 delegates staying for seven nights.

It is estimated by Fáilte Ireland that the daily value of a corporate visitor to the economy is €,1150. This is thought to be around double the value of a visitor from the leisure sector.

The bidding process for the meeting went down to four cities: Dublin, Killarney, Edinburgh and London. Killarney was a late wildcard entry into the bidding process.

At this time no details on the company are being released other then that they are a major player on the US insurance market.

The international locations of corporate meetings, conferences and trade fairs. Failte Ireland Failte Ireland

‘Corporate Meeting Supports’ sees Fáilte Ireland working alongside destination management company Odyssey International to try and encourage business meetings to be held here in Ireland.

Speaking about the new scheme, Paul Mockler from Fáilte Ireland, said:

Corporate meetings are big business for tourism and represent a real opportunity for Ireland to attract more visitors and importantly more revenue.

On winning the bid Mockler said:

“Now our focus changes to ensuring that the delegates are impressed by what we have to offer as well as ensuring we attract more of this kind of business to our shores.”

Business tourism is worth €579 million a year to the Irish economy and supports 19,000 jobs.

Fáilte Ireland also has a specific programme focusing on securing conferences in Ireland called the ‘Dublin Convention Bureau’. So far this year it has booked 40 conferences worth €30 million to the Irish economy.

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