The number of people travelling to Ireland increased by five per cent in the three months to the end of last year.
New figures released by the CSO report that 1.4m trips were made into the country - an increase of over 68,000 compared to the same time in 2011.
Trips by North American visitors increased by over 14% but the number of visitors from Britain fell by just over 1%.
More Irish people travelled overseas during the same three months - an increase of almost 4% on the same time in 2011.