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‘Experience economy’ accounts for 9% of Irish jobs

Ireland’s “experience economy” accounts for 9% of total jobs in the country, according to the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (Ibec).

Ibec has released a detailed economic assessment report highlighting the significance of the entertainment and hospitality sectors, citing Dublin’s Croke Park – which will host concerts by Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, AC/DC and Coldplay this summer – as a significant contributor.

Around 300,000 people are employed in Ireland’s experience economy, with an additional 100,000 jobs created through areas such as supply chains, services, and suppliers. However, the group warns that the industry requires government support to help combat rising costs and skills shortages.

“The experience economy plays a vital role in Ireland’s economic landscape,” says Sharon Higgins, Ibec’s executive director of membership and sectors. “It encompasses a vast interconnected ecosystem comprising large and small businesses, with a substantial supply chain supporting it.

“The success of this ecosystem relies on all businesses within it thriving. It serves as a crucial economic lever, particularly in ‘hard to reach’ yet critical parts of our economy and society. Moreover, it enhances the overall quality of life by providing enriching experiences for both residents and visitors, thereby not only boosting tourism but also fostering a sense of community and identity.

“This essential segment of the economy is currently facing challenges and requires support”

“However, this essential segment of the economy is currently facing challenges and requires support.”

Annual expenditure on goods and services amounts to almost €4 billion in the sector, which generates €4.5bn in wages and salaries.

A key policy recommendation, says Ibec, is the need for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to have the strategic planning oversight for Ireland’s experience economy and responsibility for driving the delivery of overall strategy.

“The report has confirmed the significant cost increases that experience economy businesses are expected to face over the next two years and acknowledges the serious concerns regarding job retention and business viability,” adds Higgins. “Ibec would like to see a commitment to a ‘competitiveness charter’ concerning state-imposed labour market costs, as well as the introduction of a PRSI rebate targeted at specific companies. These measures are crucial for ensuring the resilience and sustainability of the experience economy in Ireland.”

 


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Sergeant’s PSE secures first client

Paul Sergeant Events (PSE), the new event-management venture launched by ex-Etihad Stadium boss Paul Sergeant earlier this month, has signed up its first client in the form of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA).

The Dublin-based sports association will send two hurling teams to Australia to compete in a fixture in November 2018, with Melbourne-based PSE managing and promoting the event. Full details of the matches, which Sergeant tells IQ will also include a music and entertainment component, will be announced next month.

“We are privileged and honoured to have entered into this partnership”

“This is a first for hurling and a wonderful chance to promote and expand the game on an international stage,” says GAA commercial director Peter McKenna. “We are delighted to have a partner in PSE that has the experience and local knowledge required to successfully deliver such an important undertaking in Australia”.

Sergeant adds: “The GAA is one of the oldest and most recognisable governing bodies in world sport. We are privileged and honoured to have entered into this partnership, PSE’s first since the business was launched earlier this month.”

 


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Live entertainment revenue tops €1.7bn in Ireland

Live entertainment in Ireland generated at least €1.7 billion in extra revenue from March 2015–2016, according to a new study backed by a cross-section of the island’s music industry.

Let’s Celebrate 2017, published today by music PR firm Wide Awake Communications, reveals that for every €1 spent on a ticket in that 12-month period, live events – defined as live music, arts, theatrical, comedy and family events, attractions and exhibitions – generated €6.06 in additional revenue.

Its findings are based on research by London-based BOP Consulting, which analysed ticket sales data from Ticketmaster Ireland and the results of a survey of more than 5,700 event attendees.

The report, which Wide Awake founder Justin Green says was commissioned because of his “belief that the entertainment industry is frequently overlooked and not always respected as the viable and tangible professional industry that it is”, is backed by collection society IMRO, tourist board Fáilte Ireland and several venues, including Dublin’s Aviva Stadium and Croke Park, and contains contributions from former U2 manager (and ILMC 29 Breakfast Meeting interviewee) Paul McGuinness, promoters Caroline Downey, Peter Aiken and Denis Desmond and artists including Louis Walsh, Robbie Williams and Michael Bublé.

For every €1 spent on a ticket in 2015–16, live entertainment generated €6.06 in additional revenue

It includes figures from the entire island of Ireland (both Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK, and the larger, independent Republic of Ireland). Additional revenue – defined as spending on top of the cost of tickets – for the Republic alone was €1.3bn.

A total of 3.42m people attended live entertainment events in the period surveyed, of which the largest proportion – 2.27m – was for concerts and music festivals.

For music specifically, the additional revenue was €900m in the Republic and €326m in Ulster, for a total of €1.27bn.

The live entertainment sector additionally supported 11,331 jobs (of which 8,546 were in the live music industry), while some 400,000 people came from overseas to attend a live event on the island.

“Music is part of our cultural DNA. But it is also of huge economic importance, in a way that has too seldom been recognised at official level”

BOP Consulting’s Richard Naylor and Jonathan Todd say Let’s Celebrate 2017 has “demonstrated that live entertainment is of great economic and cultural importance to the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland”.

“Music is in [Ireland’s] blood. It is part of our cultural DNA. But it is also of huge economic importance, in a way that has too seldom been recognised at official level,” adds Hot Press editor Niall Stokes, in his foreword to the report. “After all, music, theatre, comedy and festivals are among the key attractions for visitors to this country.

I trust, therefore, that this important study will clarify, in a way that brooks no further argument, that the music and entertainment industry truly is a vital part of what makes this country unique and attractive as a place to live and to visit – and that it, and the Irish artists who are so important to its health and well-being, should be encouraged and supported and celebrated at every opportunity, for the joy and the inspiration that they deliver so widely and so well, to so many.”

 


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