Five tourism businesses from Northern Ireland attended one of the leading global events for the meetings, incentives, conferences and events (MICE) industry – IBTM World – which is took place in Barcelona.
The island of Ireland is being promoted as a world-class destination for Business Events to top international buyers, to inspire them to choose the island for future meetings and incentive travel. Around 1,900 commercial meetings are expected to take place over the three-day event.
Business Events – i.e., the corporate meetings, events and incentive travel industry – is recognised as a key driver of economic growth. Business travel is high value and often midweek and off season by its nature, thereby aligning with Tourism Ireland’s strategy to grow overseas tourism revenue outside of the peak summer season.
David Boyce, Tourism Ireland’s Head of Business Events and Luxury, said:
“We are delighted to have five tourism partners from Northern Ireland with us at IBTM World in Barcelona this week, as we collectively work to inspire the international buyers in attendance about all that the destination has to offer their clients.
“Tourism Ireland’s goal is to enable thousands of commercial Business Events meetings this year – connecting our tourism partners from Northern Ireland and the island of Ireland with overseas buyers, to grow Business Events and support tourism enterprises. To date in 2024, we have invested around €2.5 million in the area of Business Events and facilitated over 7,000 commercial meetings. IBTM World is a fantastic platform for our partners from Northern Ireland to showcase and sell their products and services, to ensure they win a greater share of the buyers’ business in 2025 and beyond.”
‘Meet in Ireland’ is the official MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and events) brand for the island of Ireland, comprising Tourism Ireland, Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Northern Ireland, who work in partnership to promote the island of Ireland as a leading business events destination.
