Published on Friday2ndSeptember2016

Continued strong growth in overseas visits to Ireland

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Ministers Ross & O'Donovan at a recent press conference

Tourism Minister Shane Ross and Minister of State Patrick O'Donovan today welcomed the latest official data on overseas travel from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), which showed an increase of 12.7% in overseas visits to Ireland for the first seven months of 2016 compared to the same period of 2015. 

The latest CSO figures on Overseas Travel show:

  • At 5.427 million visits, overall trips to Ireland were up 12.7% in the first seven months of 2016 compared to the same period in 2015.
  • Visits from Mainland Europe grew by 11.6% for January to July 2016 (1,911,200 visits);
  •  North America registered an increase of 15.5% for January – July 2016 (990,100 visits);
  • Visits from Great Britain were up by 13.9% for January – July 2016 (2,224,900 visits).
  • Visits from the rest of the world, mostly long-haul and developing markets, were up by 3% totalling 300,800 visits.

Minister Ross said: 

Today’s CSO release again demonstrates that Irish tourism is having an excellent year. Yesterday it was shown that the revenue associated with overseas visitors grew by 9.5% in the first half of this year compared with 2015. Today’s release shows that the number of overseas visits to Ireland increased by 12.7% in the first seven months of the year. All of our main markets show strong growth with a particularly strong performance from North America (+15.5%) and Great Britain (+13.9%). Tourism is a vital economic sector for the Irish economy and I will be doing all I can to ensure that investment in tourism remains a priority in the coming years.

For more information read the press release here.