Galway Chamber has begun recruiting businesses for a gift card intended to direct spending across Galway city and county, working with both local councils on a programme that combines physical and digital cards with a geographically restricted merchant network. The partners announced the Love Galway Gift Card, also called Grá do Ghaillimh Gift Card, on August 5, ahead of a planned public launch later in the autumn. [S01]

The immediate commercial task is building the acceptance network. Retailers, hospitality venues, visitor attractions, health and beauty providers, leisure operators and professional services were invited to register interest. The announcement set out an onboarding phase and information sessions before consumers would be offered the card; it did not establish that the consumer programme was already live. [S01]

Local acceptance in both formats

The proposed card can be redeemed only in person at participating Galway businesses. That restriction applies to the planned digital format as well as the physical card. Digital delivery therefore changes how the gift reaches its recipient without removing the programme's connection to local premises. [S01]

For merchants, the partners describe free registration and no scheme commission deducted from transactions. Those are the stated participation terms. The announcement does not provide a full schedule of payment-processing or other account charges, so the commission statement should be read as the programme's own proposition rather than a claim that every cost of accepting a payment disappears. [S01]

A network spanning the city and surrounding county gives the card a broader acceptance area than a single town-centre scheme. Its usefulness will depend on which businesses join and the range of goods, services and experiences they provide. Recruitment across multiple sectors is consequently part of the product itself: an attractive card needs places where recipients can actually spend it.

A chamber-and-council delivery model

Galway Chamber is delivering the initiative with Galway City Council and Galway County Council as part of Miconex's Town & City Gift Cards programme. The arrangement combines local business recruitment and public-sector support with an established gift-card operator. The source announcements place it within a network operating in more than 100 locations across Ireland and the UK. [S01] [S02]

Chamber chief executive Karen Ronan emphasised merchant retention of transaction value. The councils linked their support to local commerce and the mix of businesses serving the city, towns and villages. These are the partners' objectives for the programme; the recruitment announcement supplies no measured Galway sales or footfall results. [S01]

Employers are an intended customer group alongside residents and visitors. Corporate purchases can bring several recipients into the same local acceptance network, connecting staff gifting budgets with participating businesses. The Galway announcement identifies that channel as an opportunity rather than disclosing signed employer orders or contracted purchase volumes. [S01]

Existing network sales provide context

Miconex cited more than €17.4 million in Irish programme sales during 2025. That is the operator's reported historical network figure, not a forecast for Galway or revenue generated by the new card. It indicates the scale of the existing Irish business into which this programme would fit. [S02]

The next substantive milestone in the announced plan is the move from merchant recruitment to public availability. Until then, the confirmed development is the formation of a city-and-county scheme and the invitation to businesses to join it. Its eventual reach and commercial performance will depend on the acceptance network assembled before launch.