The Gathering, the tourism initiative which generated an extra €170 million in revenue for Ireland in 2013, is expected to be brought back as part of a new growth strategy for the tourism sector.
Tourism Minister Paschal Donoghue will announce this week the new strategy called People, Place and Policy-Growing Tourism to 2025, which is aimed at increasing visitor spending by 50 per cent to €5 billion by 2025, according to the Evening Herald.
As part of the strategy, a reworking of The Gathering Ireland project will be drawn up, hoping to have as much success as the 2013 event, which helped to increase visitor numbers by seven per cent, when an estimated 275,000 extra people visited the country.
A taskforce has been created by Fáilte Ireland and local authorities in order to market Dublin in the best way possible. The aim is to increase visitor numbers to ten million, boost revenue as well as create 50,000 new jobs in the tourism sector.
The Gathering 2013 was put together within the budget of €13 million with help from sponsorships and third parties. The tourism market received a notable boost that year after several stagnant years for the industry.
