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Minister of State for Tourism & Sport Michael Ring has said the Gathering Ireland 2013 has got off to a flying start.

"The response from the public and tourism stakeholders has been overwhelmingly positive. There are now over 3,000 individual gatherings confirmed on the Gathering website. These include clan gatherings, festivals, special sporting events, and concerts taking place across the country, throughout the year.

"Along with well-established events and festivals, we are also supporting a specially targeted set of events for the Gathering such as the exceptionally successful New Year’s Eve event.

"The Gathering was kicked off by the New Year’s Eve festival in Dublin which went extremely well.

"To assess the success of the initiative, a monitoring system calculating the number of visitors attending Gathering events is being employed. This performance-tracking scheme will include: a survey of visitors to capture the percentage of people travelling for Gathering events; a nationwide survey of sentiment of the initiative; and specific surveys of 27 major funded festival and larger events.

"A crucial benefit of the Gathering 2013 is the legacy it will inevitably create. The initiative is laying a solid foundation for repeat visitors for years to come. To assist in this process we have a target to continue one in four new events post 2013. Many community programmes and structures will continue into next year and beyond.

"We will also have a new consumer database/website of 100,000 contacts across key markets which will continue to promote Ireland has an exciting and vibrant destination." Ends