Business tourism could bring in up to €1bn a year

When used in an Irish context, the word "tourist" evokes images of Irish-Americans searching for their roots, rowdy English hen parties in Temple Bar or perhaps bubbly groups of Spanish students.

But, interestingly, the category of overseas visitor likely to spend the most money here often goes under our radar - the business tourist.

According to Fáilte Ireland, business tourism, including conference travel, is worth €475 million to the Irish economy annually. The area of most interest is "promotable" business tourism, it says. This refers to businesspeople who could chose to go elsewhere, as opposed to those who have to visit colleagues based in Ireland.

If the right steps are taken to develop this lucrative sector of the tourism industry, Fáilte Ireland believes that it could generate annual revenues of €1 billion a year by 2010.

Incentive trips are a key driver of the business tourism market in Ireland. These are top-of-the-range perks used by companies to reward high-flying staff, generally successful salespeople working in the insurance industry in the US, for example.

Incentive trips are arranged by "destination management" companies based here, and companies chose from a whole portfolio of packages bring offered in different countries.

Ireland is a popular choice, despite stiff competition from exotic destinations such as Tahiti. Conservative estimates place the number of people whisked to Ireland each year for such luxury breaks at 50,000.

"It is up there as an attractive destination for people in US and indeed in Europe," says Deirdre Mulligan, of Fáilte Ireland's business tourism section.

She says companies want to their staff to have "the time of their lives" on these incentive trips, and are prepared to lavish as much as €10,000 per person over the few days spent here.

Not only are employees whisked off to exclusive five-star hotels such as Dromoland or Ashford Castle, but they can expect a tailor-made programme of entertainment.

Only the favoured few get to avail of incentive travel, however. Business meetings make up by far the biggest segment of the business travel sector, and accounted for 130,000 visitors to the State last year.

The third area of business tourism is conference travel - where delegates are sent by their employer to attend conferences held in Ireland. This segment will soon receive a boost with the launch of the National Conference Centre in Dublin.

According to Ms Mulligan, the conference business is less sensitive to global shocks, such as 9/11 or the outbreak of Sars, than incentive travel and business trips, as conferences are arranged and booked years in advance.

As the first purpose-build conference facility in Ireland, the National Conference Centre will represent a significant addition to our armoury for attracting overseas business tourists, Ms Mulligan says.