Overseas visits to Ireland were up by 7.8% for first seven months of 2018, compared to the same period last year, according to the latest CSO data released today.
The figures show that Ireland welcomed just over 6m overseas visitors from January to July. This represents an extra 436,000 visitors compared to the corresponding period in 2017, with most of the growth coming from Europe (+212,000) and North America (+157,000).
British visitors to Ireland increased by 2.5% to 2.14m over the seven month period, while North American visitors grew by 13.5% to 1.3m, and Mainland Europe increased by 10.6% to 2.21m visitors, with both Germany (+20%) and Italy (+15.5%) growing strongly. Visitors from all other areas (368,000) grew by 4.1%.
Welcoming today’s figures, Fáilte Ireland’s Chief Executive Paul Kelly said:
“This continued excellent growth in visitor numbers shows how the combined actions of current Government policy - including a competitive VAT rate and zero airport tax - along with Fáilte Ireland’s regional brands like the Wild Atlantic Way and strong international marketing by Tourism Ireland, are all working exceptionally well in terms of supporting robust growth for tourism.
“In order to sustain this growth in the face of the significant risks that Brexit brings, we need to maintain this strategy and reinvest some of the extra €100m that tourism will contribute to tax revenue this year alone - on top of the €1.7bn it contributed last year. This funding will allow us to further develop our tourism offering and spread the benefits across all regions.
“Today’s figures also show continued success in the way that tourism businesses are diversifying into other key markets, which is very good news in terms of managing risk but it does mean we need both public and private sector investment in building our language and cultural capabilities in order to provide the big ‘Céad Míle Fáilte’ to these diverse visitors.”
Overseas Visitors to Ireland January -July 2018
Staying and same day visits (000)
|
|
2017 |
2018 |
% change |
|
Britain |
2,087 |
2,139 |
2.5 |
|
North America |
1,163 |
1,320 |
13.5 |
|
Mainland Europe |
1,994 |
2,206 |
10.6 |
|
France |
333 |
337 |
1.2 |
|
Germany |
384 |
461 |
20.0 |
|
Italy |
202 |
233 |
15.5 |
|
Spain |
261 |
264 |
0.8 |
|
All Other Europe |
814 |
912 |
12.0 |
|
Other Areas |
354 |
368 |
4.1 |
|
Australia/New Zealand |
116 |
122 |
5.4 |
|
Other |
238 |
246 |
3.4 |
|
Total Overseas |
5,597 |
6,033 |
7.8 |
Source: CSO Overseas Travel, 29 August 2018
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