Business visitors rise by 10%

THE numbers of business visitors to Ireland increased by 10% last year, as 29,000 overseas delegates pumped €36 million into the Irish economy, according to Fáilte Ireland.

For the first half of 2009, a further 71 conferences catered for 40,000 corporate visitors adding a further €52m in revenue.

The Fáilte Ireland report stands in stark contrast to the latest CSO figures, which reveal that overseas visits for holiday goers to Ireland fell by 18.4% in May compared with the same period last year.