New figures released by the Central Statistics Office show that the number of overseas visitors to Ireland increased by 4.2% during the first half of 2017.
The amount of travellers visiting Ireland from North America rose by more than 20%, as reported by rte.ie, while European visitors numbers, mainly from Germany, Spain and France, increased by 6%. However, the number of British residents visiting Ireland, on the other hand, dropped by 6%.
Commenting on the decrease in British visitor numbers, Tourism Ireland CEO Niall Gibbons, said: "We've a very active campaign in Great Britain at the moment working very closely with the tour operators there and a very active advertising campaign at the moment too. But we have to make sure that we offer value for money to the British consumer who has essentially seen the prices of their holidays to the eurozone as a whole increase by 15% over the last year."
According to Tourism Ireland, the UK currently accounts for 47% of all overseas visitors to Ireland and approximately 30% of the country's overseas tourism revenue.
Gibbons expressed his hope that the British-Irish visa scheme, which was introduced by the Department of Justice and the Home Office in the UK to market Britain and Ireland as a single destination in India and China, will be retained post-Brexit.
