CSO data published today shows that total overseas travel to Ireland increased by 7% for the first two months of 2019 compared to the same time last year, resulting in 1.24 million overseas visitors.
The figures released this morning also show that:
-
British visitors increased by 3.9% to 525,000 visitors
-
North American grew by 10.7% to 192,000 visitors
-
Mainland Europe increased by 7.8% to 441,000 visitors – an increase of 32,000 visitors over the same period last year
-
Visitors from all Other Areas (85,000) grew by 14.8%
Responding to today’s CSO data, Fáilte Ireland’s CEO Paul Kelly said:
“Today’s CSO figures show that tourism has made a steady start to the year. However, it is premature to use this as an indication of how tourism figures will progress over the coming year, particularly in the face of Brexit. The ongoing uncertainty around Brexit is a major challenge particularly for the tourism sector as Britain is Ireland’s largest source market for tourism, providing almost half of our overseas visitors. Fáilte Ireland has developed a series of initiatives for industry to help them manage the Brexit challenge. Earlier this year we invested €5 million in a comprehensive programme of supports and commercial development programmes to help tourism businesses ‘Get Brexit Ready’ by diversifying to other markets thereby reducing their reliance on the British market. Our key message to the sector continues to be –‘prepare and diversify’. With this proactive approach, combined with a focus on offering high quality service and good value for money, we hope to see further growth in the year ahead.”
|
2018 |
2019 |
% change |
Britain |
505 |
525 |
3.9 |
North America |
174 |
192 |
10.7 |
Mainland Europe |
409 |
441 |
7.8 |
France |
57 |
67 |
16.9 |
Germany |
74 |
77 |
4.9 |
Italy |
44 |
40 |
-7.6 |
Spain |
45 |
50 |
9.5 |
All Other Europe |
190 |
207 |
9.2 |
Other Areas |
74 |
85 |
14.8 |
Australia/New Zealand |
24 |
25 |
5.5 |
Other |
50 |
60 |
19.4 |
Total Overseas |
1,161 |
1,242 |
7.0 |
Source: CSO Overseas Travel, 26 March 2019
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