Cork Tourism Companies Partner with Tourism Ireland at London’s Meetings Show

Key Points

• Tourism Ireland is exhibiting at The Meetings Show in London this week under the campaign banner “Meet in Ireland.”
• The delegation includes Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Northern Ireland as official partners within the “Meet in Ireland” team.
• A total of 28 tourism companies from Ireland are attending alongside Tourism Ireland.
• Cork-based businesses in the delegation include Cork Convention Bureau and the Scally Hotel Collection, whose portfolio includes Hayfield Manor.
• The Meetings Show is a leading exhibition for the Business Events sector, covering corporate meetings, events and incentive travel.
• Irish delegates are taking part in around 840 commercial meetings with global meeting and event planners over the two-day show.
• The meetings are designed to secure Business Events for Ireland in 2026 and in future years.
• Tourism Ireland is promoting Ireland’s infrastructure, accommodation, venues, landscapes and hospitality as reasons to choose it for Business Events.
• David Boyce, Tourism Ireland’s Head of Business Events, said the show is an important platform for promoting Ireland to international planners.
• Boyce also linked Business Events to Tourism Ireland’s wider strategy of growing overseas tourism revenue outside the peak summer season.

London (Britain Today News) June 27, 2026 – Tourism Ireland has taken its “Meet in Ireland” campaign to The Meetings Show in London this week, leading a delegation of 28 tourism companies from across Ireland, including two Cork operators, Cork Convention Bureau and the Scally Hotel Collection, whose properties include Hayfield Manor. The all-island push, delivered jointly with Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Northern Ireland as part of the “Meet in Ireland” team, is targeting around 840 commercial meetings with international meeting and event planners over the course of the two-day exhibition, with the aim of securing Business Events for Ireland in 2026 and beyond.

What Is The Meetings Show And Why Does It Matter For Ireland?

The Meetings Show is widely regarded as one of the leading exhibitions for the Business Events industry, a sector that spans corporate meetings, conferences, events and incentive travel. For Ireland’s tourism bodies, the show represents a concentrated opportunity to engage directly with the planners who decide where major international meetings and incentive trips will be held. Rather than a single afternoon of networking, the format allows dozens of Irish operators to sit down with hundreds of potential clients across just two days, compressing a year’s worth of relationship-building into a tightly scheduled series of face-to-face sessions.

For a market like Business Events, where contracts are often signed years in advance of an actual event taking place, this kind of sustained, high-volume engagement is central to keeping Ireland visible in a competitive international field. Exhibitions of this scale give destination marketing organisations a chance to showcase not just individual venues, but an entire national offering, positioning Ireland alongside other countries competing for the same pool of global corporate and association business.

For meeting and event planners attending the show, the format offers an efficient way to assess multiple destinations within a single visit, comparing what is on offer from different national tourism bodies before making decisions that may shape where conferences, incentive programmes and corporate gatherings are held years into the future. For Ireland, securing a strong presence on the show floor is therefore as much about long-term relationship management as it is about any single meeting taking place this week.

Who Is Taking Part In The “Meet in Ireland” Delegation?

This year’s delegation is built around the “Meet in Ireland” team, a joint initiative bringing together Tourism Ireland, Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Northern Ireland under a single promotional umbrella. Travelling alongside these three bodies are 28 separate tourism companies drawn from across the island of Ireland, each specialising in some aspect of the Business Events trade, whether that is venue management, hotel accommodation, destination management services or incentive travel logistics.

The breadth of the delegation reflects an attempt to present planners with a genuinely comprehensive picture of what Ireland can offer, rather than relying on a handful of flagship venues to carry the message. By fielding nearly thirty companies under one coordinated banner, Tourism Ireland and its partners are able to ensure that whatever a given planner is looking for, whether that is a city-centre conference hotel, a countryside retreat for an incentive trip, or a purpose-built event space, there is likely to be an Irish operator at the show able to speak to that specific need.

Which Cork Companies Are Represented At The Show?

Among the 28 participating companies are two operators based in Cork: Cork Convention Bureau and the Scally Hotel Collection. Cork Convention Bureau works to bring conferences, meetings and events to Cork city and county, acting as a point of contact between event organisers and the range of venues, hotels and services available in the region. The Scally Hotel Collection’s presence at the show includes Hayfield Manor, one of Cork’s best-known hotel properties, which is positioned within the group’s portfolio as a venue capable of hosting meetings, events and incentive travel groups.

Their inclusion in the delegation underlines the extent to which Ireland’s Business Events strategy is not confined to Dublin or to a small number of major cities. Cork’s presence at The Meetings Show signals an intent to put the southern city forward as a genuine option for international planners weighing up where to hold their next meeting, conference or incentive trip, alongside the other Irish destinations represented on the stand.

How Many Meetings Are Being Held And What Is At Stake?

Tourism Ireland has said that the Irish companies attending the show are engaging in around 840 commercial meetings with global meeting and event planners across the two-day event. That figure gives a sense of the sheer scale of the activity taking place on the show floor: with 28 companies dividing that volume of meetings between them, individual representatives are likely to be moving from one scheduled appointment to the next for most of the two days, each conversation representing a potential lead for future business.

According to Tourism Ireland, these meetings are intended to, in turn, deliver Business Events for Ireland from around the world in 2026 and beyond, meaning the impact of this week’s activity is not expected to be felt immediately, but rather over the course of the coming months and years, as planners who meet Irish representatives at the show begin to factor Ireland into their own future event planning.

What Message Is Tourism Ireland Promoting To International Planners?

Tourism Ireland’s central message at the show is that Ireland offers a winning combination of world-class infrastructure, unique and luxurious accommodation, state-of-the-art venues, spectacular landscapes, the warmest of welcomes and fantastic hospitality, making it an ideal destination for meetings, incentive travel and events of all sizes. This framing is designed to appeal across the full range of event types represented at The Meetings Show, from small corporate meetings through to large-scale international conferences and incentive trips for hundreds of delegates.

By emphasising both the practical side of Ireland’s offering, its infrastructure and venues, and the more experiential elements, its landscapes and hospitality, Tourism Ireland is attempting to make the case that Ireland can satisfy the logistical requirements of a major international meeting while also giving delegates a distinctive and memorable experience once they arrive. For planners comparing multiple competing destinations, that combination of practical capability and experiential appeal is often a deciding factor.

What Did Tourism Ireland’s Head Of Business Events Say About The Show?

David Boyce, Tourism Ireland’s Head of Business Events, said:

“The Meetings Show provides an important platform for us to promote Ireland as a premier destination for Business Events and we are delighted to have 28 tourism companies from Ireland with us at this event. They’re engaging in around 840 commercial meetings and showcasing the best of Ireland to influential international meeting and incentive travel planners.”

Boyce’s comments place this week’s exhibition within a broader, ongoing effort by Tourism Ireland to position the country as a “premier destination” for the Business Events sector specifically, rather than relying solely on its reputation as a leisure tourism destination. His reference to

“influential international meeting and incentive travel planners”

points to the strategic value the organisation places on the calibre of contacts available at this particular show, rather than simply the volume of meetings taking place.
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Why Is Business Events Tourism A Strategic Priority For Ireland?

Boyce went on to set out the wider rationale behind Tourism Ireland’s focus on this sector, saying:

“Business travel is high value and often midweek and off season by its nature, thereby aligning with Tourism Ireland’s strategy to grow overseas tourism revenue outside of the peak summer season.”

This statement frames Business Events not simply as one strand of Ireland’s tourism offering among many, but as a strategically important one, precisely because of when and how it tends to occur. Where leisure tourism is heavily concentrated in the summer months and at weekends, corporate meetings, conferences and incentive trips are more likely to take place midweek and across all seasons of the year. For hotels, venues and the wider tourism supply chain, that pattern of demand can help to fill capacity during periods that would otherwise be quieter, supporting revenue and employment outside the traditional peak season.

How Does This Activity Fit Into Tourism Ireland’s Wider Strategy?

Taken together, Tourism Ireland’s presence at The Meetings Show, the scale of the delegation it has assembled, and the specific commentary offered by David Boyce all point to a coordinated strategy built around three elements: breadth of representation, volume of direct engagement, and a clear value proposition aimed at addressing seasonality in overseas tourism revenue. The involvement of Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Northern Ireland as partners within the “Meet in Ireland” team further suggests an effort to present a unified, all-island offering to international planners, rather than separate or competing regional pitches.

The presence of regional operators such as Cork Convention Bureau and the Scally Hotel Collection within that delegation indicates that this strategy extends beyond the capital, with Tourism Ireland keen to demonstrate that Business Events capacity exists across multiple Irish destinations, not solely in Dublin.

What Happens Next For The Companies Involved?

With the two-day event built around back-to-back commercial meetings, the practical outcomes for individual companies, including Cork Convention Bureau and the Scally Hotel Collection, will likely become clearer in the weeks and months following the show, as the roughly 840 meetings held this week translate into firm enquiries, proposals and, ultimately, confirmed bookings. Tourism Ireland’s own framing of the event, that it will

“deliver Business Events for Ireland from around the world in 2026 and beyond,”

suggests that the organisation views this week’s activity in London as the starting point for a pipeline of business rather than as an end in itself.

For now, the immediate story is one of scale and coordination: 28 Irish tourism companies, working under a single national banner alongside Tourism Ireland, Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Northern Ireland, engaging in hundreds of meetings over two days in London, with Cork’s Business Events sector represented within that wider Irish delegation. Whether that activity translates into confirmed events for Cork venues such as Hayfield Manor, or for the wider network of operators within the Scally Hotel Collection and Cork Convention Bureau, will depend on the follow-up conversations that typically take place in the weeks after a show of this kind, as initial meetings are converted into formal proposals and, where successful, signed contracts.

What is clear from this week’s event is the scale of ambition behind Ireland’s Business Events strategy: a coordinated, all-island delegation, a high volume of direct engagement with international planners, and a message built around year-round, midweek demand that aligns with Tourism Ireland’s broader goal of growing overseas tourism revenue beyond the traditional summer peak.