More than 600 social influencers, with a combined reach of 380m travel fans, have arrived in Ireland to attend TBEX Europe, the largest gathering of travel bloggers, writers, content creators and social media-savvy travel industry professionals in Europe.

The group will each spend an average of two weeks exploring Ireland and attending TBEX Europe, which takes place from 3rd – 5th October in the Killarney Convention Centre (INEC). The conference is taking place in Killarney following a successful bid to host the event by Fáilte Ireland. For almost half of the TBEX delegates, this will be their first time visiting Ireland.

Ahead of TBEX Europe, Fáilte Ireland organised the TBEX Fáilte Ireland Travel Summit, which brought 22 of the visitors to Kilkea Castle on Sunday 1st October.

As part of this event, the global travel bloggers and travel writers met with travel tech brands including Twitter, Travel Massive, Lonely Planet, Razorsocial and OpenJaw and Irish tourism brands such as Aer Lingus, Guinness Storehouse and Waterford Crystal to explore best practices in influencer marketing, online content creation; and discuss the future of travel media.

Speaking ahead of the Summit and Conference, Fáilte Ireland CEO, Paul Kelly explained: “No other event offers Ireland the opportunity to meet with so many travel bloggers, traditional travel media, digital content creators and social media influencers all at once. This highly influential group will spend on average two weeks in Ireland, exploring and experiencing all that is on offer and Fáilte Ireland has been working hard to ensure Ireland can reap the benefits of their time spent here.

“When we consider the scale of their audiences, hosting these delegates is a unique opportunity for us to increase Ireland’s digital footprint and reinforce the many reasons why Ireland should be a destination of choice for these influencers and their followers.”