Over 40 British leading meetings and events professionals enjoyed a flavour of the Mid-West, at the annual ‘Ireland Meets the West End’ gathering in London this week. The B2B event saw the buyers meet, and do business with, some 33 tourism businesses from Ireland, including the Shannon Region Conference & Sports Bureau.
‘Ireland Meets the West End’ is organised by Tourism Ireland in conjunction with Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Northern Ireland, to grow business tourism from Britain to the island of Ireland. It proved to be a valuable opportunity for the Irish companies to showcase and sell their product for 2017 and to communicate what is unique about Ireland as a world-class destination for doing business.
David Boyce, Tourism Ireland’s deputy head of Great Britain, said, “Business tourism is an important, high yield sector and Tourism Ireland has undertaken a busy programme of activity throughout 2016, to grow this type of tourism. Our promotions have been highlighting our world-class venues and facilities, ease of access from Great Britain, as well as the good value rates available for meetings and conferences. Our message to the buyers is that there’s never been a better time to do business in Ireland.”
Business tourism is the most lucrative form of tourism, with visitors travelling here for business purposes spending about 2.5 times more than the average visitor. Corporate meetings and association conferences continue to be the focus of Tourism Ireland’s business tourism promotions in GB.
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.