Ireland triples financial support for business events

Failte Ireland’s (National Tourism Development Authority) Meet in Ireland team has increased funding for Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE), offering up to €100,000 (US$114,000) per international event for applications received before December 2022. Failte Ireland is hoping the support will assist international business events in the post-pandemic recovery. To qualify, corporate meetings and incentive trips must have a minimum of 50 international delegates in attendance and association conferences have a minimum requirement of 100 international delegates. Paul Kelly, CEO of Failte Ireland, said: “To help offset the damage done by the Covid-19 pandemic to Ireland’s MICE industry, we have launched a series of new upweighted business events financial supports in October 2020.” Since October 2020, the Meet in Ireland team has supported 78 separate pieces of business, including 18 associations events and 60 corporate meetings and incentive groups, projecting to bring 30,543 delegates to Ireland before 2025. Approximately €1m worth of funding has been offered so far, which will bring in an estimated added value of €440m back into Ireland within the next four years. Of the 78 events that have seen the benefit of the financial support, 57 are due to take place across 2021 and 2022 and will deliver an estimated value of approximately €224m to the country. As global travel resumes, another important area of focus for the Meet in Ireland team is site inspections. Meet in Ireland is providing up to €6,000 in value for in-person site inspections and €1,000 for virtual site inspections, while also offering practical advice.