The Gathering - Homecoming events merit development

The Gathering, which was designed to attract people from abroad to this country this year, has been a phenomenal success.

For an initial government investment of €12m it is estimated to have generated €170m in revenue by attracting a record number of tourists to Ireland during 2013.

In the first 10 months of the year there were an extra 414,000 visitors, with included a doubling of the number of visitors from the key US market. Ipsos MRBI, the independent research group, concluded that between 250,000 and 275,000 of the overseas visitors travelled to Ireland specifically because of The Gathering, or related events.