Trips to Ireland up 61,000
There were 497,700 trips into Ireland last December, compared to 436,200 in December 2004, an increase of 61,500, according to figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Between January and December 2005, there were 6,977,700 trips into Ireland, an increase of 403,200 on the 2004 total of 6,574,500.
However, the trend in recent years which has seen a fall in visitors from the US continued - numbers fell by 25,900. There was an increase of 144,100 in the number of visitors from the UK last year, while the number of visitors from other European countries grew by 311,800.
There were 400,500 trips in the other direction by Irish people travelling overseas in December, compared with 348,200 in December 2004, an increase of 52,300.
Between January and December 2005, there were 6,112,900 overseas trips by Irish residents, an increase of 695,100 on 2004.
