New figures published yesterday by the CSO (21 December) showed that overseas visitors to Ireland for January to November 2017 grew 3.7% – or 330,000 additional visitors – on the same 11-month period last year.
Commenting on figures, Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said "2017 is set to be another record year for Irish tourism and today's CSO figures confirm that we welcomed almost 9.25 million overseas visitors during January to November.
"We have seen exceptional results from North America this year – almost two million visitors so far, up 16.6% on January to November last year. I also welcome the growth in visitor numbers from Australia and developing markets (+13.1%); and from Mainland Europe (+5.5%), with important markets like Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the Nordic Region all recording strong growth. Increases in direct air access, plus our market diversification strategy, have been key factors."
Gibbons said that the decline in visitor numbers from Britain continues to be a concern, which are down 5.2% for the January to November period.
He said the fall in the value of sterling has made holidays and short breaks here more expensive for British visitors and has made Britain more affordable for visitors from many of our top markets.
