Tourism figures up 3.4% as Europeans turn west
More tourists came to Ireland this April, May and June than last year, thanks to a surge in visitors from mainland Europe. Transatlantic traffic also recovered in a further boost to the tourist trade.
Tourists brought more than €1.1bn into the country, while Irish people spent around €1bn abroad. The "net profit" from the industry amounted to €61m, according to figures from the Central Statistics Office.
There were 1,762,000 overseas visits to Ireland in the second quarter of 2004 compared with 1,704,000 in the same period last year, an increase of 3.4%.
The number of visits by UK residents fell by 3.3% while the number of visits by residents of other European countries increased by 8.9% on the same quarter in 2003.
The number of visits by residents of the USA and Canada grew by 8.3% on the second quarter of 2003.
The number of second quarter overseas visits to Ireland by residents of other areas grew from 58,000 in 2003 to 89,000 in 2004.
Meanwhile, Irish people also showed increased enthusiasm for overseas trips, with 1,431,000 travelling abroad between April and June 2004, an increase of 8.2% on the corresponding period last year.
Irish people travelling abroad on cross-channel routes grew by 8.3% compared with the second quarter in 2003, while the number travelling on Continental routes grew by 7.8%.
The transatlantic figure showed the biggest leap - up 12.9% over the same period of 2003.
