Commenting on figures published today (Tuesday October 24) by the CSO for overseas visitors to Ireland for January to September 2017, Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said, “Today’s figures confirm that we welcomed 7,661,200 overseas visitors during the period January to September this year. This represents growth of almost 3% – or 216,000 additional visitors – on the same nine-month period last year, coming on the back of a record performance in 2016 and years of solid growth in overseas tourism.
“The decline in visitor numbers from Britain continues to be a real concern, down 6.7% for the January to September period. 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. This year, Tourism Ireland has placed a greater focus on our ‘culturally curious’ audience, who are less impacted by currency fluctuations. However, competitiveness and the value for money message are more important than ever in Britain right now.
“However, North America and our long-haul markets continue to perform very well. Arrivals from the US and Canada are up 18.6% for January to September and visitors from Australia and developing markets grew by 16.2% in the same period. Arrivals from Mainland Europe also grew by 3.5%. Increases in direct air access, plus our market diversification strategy, have been key factors.”
