A total of 24 tourism enterprises from across Ireland – including the Grand Hotel in Malahide – were in Germany last week for IMEX, the major business tourism exhibition which takes place each year in the city of Frankfurt.
Paula McCorry, sales and marketing manager of the Grand Hotel, Malahide, was present at the Frankfurt event, along with Gerry Browne, who was representing Killarney Hotels, Tim McStay from Irish Horizons Conference And Incentive, a destination management company, and Aoife Kernan of Tourism Ireland.
The International Meetings and Events Exhibition (IMEX) is a key event in the calendar for the MICE (meetings, incentive, conferences and events) industry. Attracting about 9,000 visitors every year, including almost 4,000 influential business tourism buyers from 75 different countries, the three-day trade show offered business and networking opportunities for the participating Irish tourism companies.
Commenting on the success of the annual event, Zoe Redmond, Tourism Ireland’s manager for Central Europe, said: “IMEX is a wonderful opportunity to build awareness of our world-class business and conference facilities, as well as the great experiences delegates can enjoy in Dublin city and county on the sidelines of their conference or meeting. The superb meetings, incentive and transport infrastructure on offer, coupled with our distinctive cultural experience, mean Ireland is a very attractive destination for the business tourism market.
“Business tourism is an important, high yield sector and Tourism Ireland has a busy programme of promotional activity under way throughout 2013, to grow this type of tourism. These promotions are highlighting the ease of access to Ireland, as well as the good value rates available for meetings and conferences and getting the island of Ireland known for excellence in business support,” she said.
Business tourism is the most lucrative form of tourism; visitors who travel to Dublin for business purposes spend about 2.5 times more than the average tourist.
