Latest World Conference statistics see city rocket up the global rankings

The exciting news for Galway is that the City has made the global rankings and tied with some larger European and US Cities such as Dallas Texas, Rennes, Stuttgart, and Aberdeen.

This strong performance shows the value of the strong local collaboration though the Meet in Galway marketing group as it is ranked above other regional locations that have dedicated conference bureaus.

Fáilte Ireland submits the Irish Report into the ICCA Rankings each year, which evaluates over 12,000 rotating international association meetings that take place around the world and ranks each country and city in terms of performance in the sector.

As one of the very few reports which compares destination’s meeting-related performance on a global scale, the annual ICCA rankings are one of the most eagerly anticipated industry publications.

The 2015 report is showing the number of meetings had significantly increased year on year, confirming the consistent growth pattern in the association meetings market internationally.

Emerging out of that is a trend displaying that these conferences are more equally spread out amongst destinations, and relatively smaller, second tier destinations, such as Galway, are becoming more and more successful at attracting association meetings.

In 2015, it is estimated that Galway City hosted €1.8million worth of International Conference, Convention and Corporate Meetings business. That figure is set to rise already for 2016, to €2.5 million, with the City having received and developed enquiries to date this year already valued at €3 million.

According to Failte Ireland, Business Tourism is one of the highest yield sectors in tourism, worth €580m a year to the Irish economy and supporting 20,000 jobs nationally.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.