CSO Data Shows 7.1% Increase in Overseas Travel to Ireland
Overseas visits to Ireland were up by 7.1% for first 10 months of 2018, compared to the same period last year, with just over 9.1m overseas visitors from January to October.
The latest CSO figures on Overseas Travel show:
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Overseas visitors to Ireland increased by 7.3% for the month of October and by 7.1% for the year to October. This resulted in 600,000 extra visitors to Ireland over the same ten-month period last year.
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British visitors increased by 1.0% to 3.17 million visitors over the corresponding period last year.
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North American visitors grew by 13.7% to 2.1 million.
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Mainland Europe increased by 9.6% to 3.31 million visitors, with German (+19.8%) and Italian visitors (+10.9%) performing the strongest.
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Visitors from all Other Areas (570,000) grew by 6.3%.
Responding to today’s figures, Fáilte Ireland’s CEO Paul Kelly said:
“We are coming to the end of what has been the best year ever for the Irish tourism industry. This year the sector has again made another significant increase in its contribution to the Irish economy, and I’m delighted to see such stellar growth continuing into October. Feedback from the industry is that October has been a particularly strong month in terms of performance and, at Fáilte Ireland, we are pleased to see this growth as we are working hard to extend the tourism season.
“Business Tourism continues to be fundamental in our seasonal growth, as conference delegates typically arrive outside of the summer months, and in October we welcomed a total of 13,600 delegates, generating an additional €20.8m in economic revenue. In addition to this, we have been working alongside Tourism Ireland with overseas holiday buyers and tour operators to promote off-season itineraries. For example, this year, one partnership alone with a US operator drove an additional 6,000 bed nights into the regions in October, supporting tourism businesses to stay open longer and in turn, keep their seasonal staff on board.
“In the year ahead, we will continue to focus on extending the season, and initiatives such as a brand new Halloween Festival and Month of Food will play a key part in this activity.”
Overseas Visitors January to October 2018
Staying and same day visits (000)
|
|
2017 |
2018 |
% change |
|
Britain |
3,133 |
3,165 |
1.0 |
|
North America |
1,845 |
2,097 |
13.7 |
|
Mainland Europe |
3,017 |
3,305 |
9.6 |
|
France |
486 |
495 |
1.9 |
|
Germany |
602 |
721 |
19.8 |
|
Italy |
316 |
350 |
10.9 |
|
Spain |
388 |
387 |
-0.4 |
|
All Other Europe |
1,225 |
1,352 |
10.4 |
|
Other Areas |
537 |
570 |
6.3 |
|
Australia/New Zealand |
180 |
196 |
8.9 |
|
Other |
356 |
374 |
4.9 |
|
Total Overseas |
8,532 |
9,137 |
7.1 |
Source: CSO Overseas Travel, 28 November 2018
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