Hotels, pubs and other hospitality businesses will share in a €68 million windfall when around 20,000 people descend on Dublin for a major conference in June 2031.
Global charity organisation, Rotary International, will confirm the Irish capital as the provisional winner of bids to host the group’s annual convention in six years’ time.
Rotary International calculates that the conference will generate around €68 million for the Irish economy.
Hosting the conference itself and spin offs as delegates extend their stays in the country will generate this cash, according to a statement on the event.
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Rotary clubs across the country led the bid, aided by State tourism body Fáilte Ireland’s Dublin convention bureau and the Royal Dublin Society (RDS).
The RDS will host the five-day event at its headquarters in Ballsbridge in Dublin.
Up to 20,000 Rotary Club delegates from an estimated 140 countries will attend the convention in 2031, according to the organisation.
The convention will include presentations, speeches, workshops and an exhibition of more than 100 humanitarian projects from around the world.
Speakers at previous gatherings included philanthropist and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and UN secretary general António Guterres.
Rotary International president Francesco Arezzo said the organisation was “thrilled” to be coming to Dublin in 2031.
Garth Arnold, chairman of the bid committee, noted that Dublin Rotary Club, founded in 1911, was the first branch of the US-headquartered organisation to be established outside North America.
“Bringing this global gathering to Ireland has been a long‑held ambition of our members, and we are now very much looking forward to realising that ambition in 2031.”
Paul Mockler, head of commercial development with Fáilte Ireland, predicted that the convention would be one of Dublin’s most significant events that year.
“It is the largest convention ever secured through Fáilte Ireland and a major milestone for Ireland’s business events sector,” he said.
Ireland’s 67 Rotary Clubs have 1,500 members who volunteer their time for local and international projects.
Their work includes collecting unwanted bicycles in Ireland and sending them to Gambia in Africa, where they are used by secondary school students.
Founded by businessman Paul P Harris in Chicago in the US in 1905, the Rotary Club works around the world on projects to fight disease, promote peace, provide clean water, support education among other things.
