The Galway Convention Bureau, which promotes Galway as a destination for international meetings, incentives, conferences and events, is looking for champions for Galway to help bring an international conference home.
In the last 18 months the bureau has secured just over €13 million of new conference and event business for Galway.
Together they will deliver over 8,125 international delegates to Galway in events to take place up to 2022.
A business visitor is worth up to three times more than a leisure tourist and meetings tend to take place outside the main summer months.
This benefits the local economy by extending the tourism season and making sure hospitality jobs don’t drift away from the west.
Galway Convention Bureau is looking for local champions who can help bring international events in to the city or county.
People who might be thinking of hosting an international conference can work with GCB on bringing that event west where it’s sure to go down well.
These champions are people who love Galway and have membership of international professional, corporate and industry association, along with the influence to bring in an international conference.
People like Anne Kinsella from Teagasc Galway who brought in the Agri Benchmark International Workshops and Global Forum Conference for Beef and Sheep 2018, with delegates representing over 30 different countries.
Or Frances Fahy and Kathy Reilly from NUI Galway who co-hosted EUGEO Congress on the Geographies of Europe May 2019 with over 450 delegates from 37 countries.
“I would encourage anyone who has international association or organisational links abroad and would like to bring an International conference to Galway, to contact the convention bureau,” said Rose Finn GCB General Manager.
“Galway Convention Bureau can support and work with you to win the conference business. We have a fantastic business tourism product in Galway, and winning this type of business is highly competitive, so we need our local champions to help make this happen”.
Galway has now been ranked as one of the top cities on the latest Global Destination Sustainability (GDS) Index, after an application led by GCB and supported by Fáilte Ireland
The GDS is a rating system designed to recognise responsible practices in the business tourism and events industry.
Galway is the only Irish destination that ranked in the top 20 for 2018, with other Irish cities and regions also being recognised for their green credentials.
This coupled with the European Green Leaf award and NUI Galway who was recently awarded the internationally recognised Green Flag accreditation for promoting sustainability and reducing its environmental impact, makes Galway the most sustainable destination in Ireland to host a conference.
Fáilte Ireland’s Meet in Ireland Manager, Ciara Gallagher, said: “Over 75 per cent of all international conferences that come to Ireland do so at the direct invitation of a local Irish member or host”.
This is encouraged by Fáilte Ireland through its Conference Ambassador Programme, which recruits influential people to help attract high profile events.
“We already have great Conference Ambassadors in Galway, who have secured excellent conferences in their area of expertise,” Ciara Gallagher added.
“Conferences like these are not only lucrative in terms of generating significant revenue for the region, they also leave a lasting legacy with regard to being recognised as a centre of innovation and excellence in these fields.”
“We are always looking to recruit expert Conference Ambassadors to help bring future business like this to Ireland and are on hand to help every step of the way.”
photo credit: Mike Shaughnessy
