Business Events Ireland Roadmap for Recovery & Growth, 2022-2027

Client:

Fáilte Ireland.

The challenge:

The primary purpose of this Roadmap was to set out Fáilte Ireland’s ambition for Ireland as a leading business events destination by providing a recovery plan that combats the impact of COVID-19 and a growth plan that leverages the opportunity to “build back better”.

The business events sector continues to face a period of uncertainty but the Roadmap sets out the opportunities of the pandemic to reset, discern the signs of the times and launch innovative new actions, driven by the principles of sustainability and delivering the greatest possible value to the social, cultural and economic life of Ireland.

Services provided:

The project was carried out by TEAM Tourism Consulting (as lead contractor), in partnership with Irish MICE consultancy, SoolNua, and British marketing and branding agency, Kemosabe.

Our overall approach was the classical one: commencing with research and consultation, as the basis for development first of the overall strategy and then the action plans, all the time working in close liaison with Fáilte Ireland and partners, particularly in shaping and funding the action proposals.

The work programme was divided into Tasks:

Task 1: Inception Meeting + meetings with key client contacts

Task 2: Consultations

Task 3: The new landscape for MICE, post-Covid

Task 4: Market analysis and selection of target markets

Task 5: Competitor analysis

Task 6: Product and experience assessment

Task 7: Situation Report & Policy Discussion Paper

Task 8: Strategy and action planning workshop

Task 9: Strategy and action plan

Task 10: Implementation and resource plan

Task 11: Final Report: The Business Tourism Roadmap for Recovery and Growth.

Outcome:

The Roadmap Final Report drew together the most important material from Tasks 2-10 into a fully integrated report. It consists of three core components: the Strategic Outcomes, which represent what Fáilte Ireland (FI) want to achieve; a series of Pillars, each incorporating a set of action areas; and underlying the Pillars, three Foundation Principles.

The analysis and recommendations were presented to Fáilte Ireland’s Business Tourism Recovery Taskforce at a meeting in February 2022, where the priorities were identified. The final report was submitted to Fáilte Ireland in March 2022. Adoption of the report by Fáilte Ireland and its parent government department is awaited.