LAUNCH OF FÁILTE IRELAND BUSINESS TOURISM FORUM
SECTOR TO BE WORTH €470 MILLION BY 2007
CONFERENCE CENTRE A MUST SAYS FÁILTE IRELAND CHAIRMAN
The Chairman of Fáilte Ireland, Ms Gillian Bowler today announced the establishment of a high-level Business Tourism Forum to drive growth in the €400 million business travel sector. The nine-person forum which met today for the first time is made of experts in the business travel sector and is chaired by former Jurys Doyle Managing Director Peter Malone. Mr Malone currently holds a number of high-profile chairmanships, including the National Roads Authority, Hibernian Insurance and CB Richard Ellis Gunne Auctioneers.
Business Tourism is the highest yielding sector within the tourism industry and includes Association Conferences, Corporate Meetings and Incentive Travel. Ms Bowler said the new Group would play an integral role in driving the strategic direction and growth of this sector in delivering more of these high-yield visitors to and throughout Ireland. She also said that the provision of the National Conference Centre, with the tender competition now at an advanced stage, would be central to this success. “As a business tourism destination Ireland has a good international reputation, and is well positioned for strong growth in the next few years. It is very timely that we are now introducing this high-level focus on the development of the sector, in line with Government development of the necessary infrastructure”, said Ms Bowler.
The full membership of the Forum is:
Mr Peter Malone Chairman
Mr Brian McColgan Managing Director, Abbey Tours
Mr Ray Carroll Chief Executive, K Club, Co Kildare
Ms Anne Wold-Graham Director TG&A International and Specialist in Incentive Business Travel
Mr John Power Chief Executive, Irish Hotels Federation
Mr Jim Deegan National Centre for Tourism Policy Studies, University of Limerick
Mr Dan Flinter Former Chief Executive, Enterprise Ireland
Mr Paul Keeley Director of Marketing, Fáilte Ireland
Mr John Rafferty Head of Product Marketing, Fáilte Ireland
The new Forum will meet several times a year to support and oversee the work of the Fáilte Ireland Business Tourism Unit. It will drive the strategic development of the whatsector in full consultation with the main industry representative groups and sectoral interests. Its first major engagement will be a two-day consultative meeting with these representative bodies, scheduled for September. This will be followed before the end of the year by the first Annual Business Tourism Industry Conference at which Fáilte Ireland will outline its marketing plans for the sector to the industry as a whole.
Speaking at the meeting Mr Malone said the business travel sector was an area of real potential for Ireland. “Throughout my career, I have had heard nothing but the highest of praise from my international business colleagues for Ireland as a destination – both in terms of our people and our facilities. The last few years have seen huge strategic and structural developments within our tourism industry and the Business Tourism Forum will be proud to take a lead in the strategic development of one of these important areas. I am confident that with the great dedication and vision of the Fáilte Ireland team, our colleagues in Tourism Ireland and the Regional Tourism Authorities, as well as the newly emerging Regional Convention Bureaux that we can do good work to enhance Ireland’s international competitive position”.
In 2002, there were 121,000 overseas visitors attending conferences and meetings in Ireland. Of these, an estimated 44,000 were attending Association Conferences, from professions like finance, insurance, healthcare, media and IT. The USA, Spain, UK, France and Italy are the leading international conference destinations. Ireland is ranked 36th. Another 25,000 overseas visitors annually come to Ireland for work-related Incentive Travel including activity holidays and sightseeing.
International research indicates that the key global market issues for the sectoral include travel safety concerns, an oversupply of conference venues, economic issues which lead shorter and smaller meetings, and increasing numbers of older and women delegates.
Ms Bowler said that growing market share in the business travel sector would be dependent on Ireland’s ability to differentiate itself as a safe destination with strong cultural characteristics, environmental qualities and excellence in service and product. “Our annual rate of growth in this sector - in the order of 7% annually – has been good, yet there have been a number of factors working against us. Besides the lack of a national conference centre we have had to contend with the small average size of hotels and shortage of large-scale banqueting facilities. The industry, with our support has invested heavily in developing these facilities, both in Dublin and in other regional conference destinations. This will continue under the guidance of the Business Tourism Forum”, she said.
Fáilte Ireland’s Business Tourism Unit has a number of successful marketing initiatives in place which will be developed and strengthened in the coming years. These include an Ambassador Programme with business leaders and networkers, market-based consultants promoting Ireland, intensive business-to-business marketing and significant investment in database technology. The overall annual budget for the Conference and Incentive Travel markets is in the region of €1.5 million.
For further information contact:
Fáilte Ireland 01 602 4289
Fiona Scott 086 381 9973
Murray Consultants 01 498 0300
Donnchadh O'Neill 087 205 6504
