Number of tourists visiting Ireland increased by 7.8% this year
Figures published today by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that there has been a growth of 7.8% in overseas visitors to Ireland for January-August 2018.
Tourist numbers increased by 7.6% last month alone, with 1,202,100 people visiting the country in August.
"Today’s figures from the CSO confirm that overseas visitor numbers increased by almost +8% during the January-August period – 520,500 additional overseas arrivals when compared with the first eight months of 2017," said Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland.
"This was the best ever month of August for Irish tourism, with more than 1.2 million arrivals.
"Particularly welcome in today’s figures is the continued strong performance from North America, with an increase of +13.2%.
"A number of factors are working in our favour, including more airline seats than ever before, from more gateways across the US and Canada.
"We’ve also seen excellent results from Mainland Europe, up +10.5% on January-August last year, with particularly strong performances from Germany (+21%) and Italy (+13.4%)."
He warned, however, that Brexit could impact visitors from the UK.
"While we welcome the fact that arrivals from Britain are up almost +2.5%, it’s too early to say if this represents a turnaround in the long-term trend.
The impact of Brexit on outbound travel from Britain, therefore, remains a concern.
