2006 Figures Show Tourism Ireland Set New Record

Boosted By The Ryder Cup, Almost Nine Million People Visit Ireland

Preliminary results from Tourism Ireland for 2006 suggest that 8.8 million visitors will have visited the island of Ireland this year, an increase of 8.5% compared to last year.

Visitor numbers from all of Ireland's key markets are forecast to exceed expectations, with a record five-plus million people visiting from Great Britain this year.

The number of visitors from Mainland Europe continued to grow with over 2.3 million visitors (up 17%) and numbers from North America topped one million for the first time since 2000 (up 11%).

Earnings from overseas visitors to the island of Ireland is forecast at €4.2 billion, an increase of 6.4%.

Bucking the trend of recent years, holidaymaker growth is forecasted to be 10%, well ahead of expectations.

Welcoming the impressive visitor and holidaymaker performance, John O'Donoghue T.D., Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism said that despite many shocks and challenges, tourism had shown sustained growth in recent years and that this had been underpinned by increased Government funding.

"2006 has been one of the best years ever for overseas visits to Ireland and I look forward to even better things in the coming year with the implementation of Tourism Ireland's strategy for growth across all markets. For my part, I have secured an unprecedented level of Exchequer resources for tourism marketing and development.

"Within that the Tourism Marketing Fund will be €45 million in 2007 a 12.5% increase on 2006 and the largest ever Exchequer budget for Irish tourism promotion. I have no doubt it will be deployed to the greatest possible effect."

Speaking at the launch, Tourism Ireland Chief Executive Paul O'Toole said that new statistics showed that Ireland at 8.5% growth is likely to gain significant market share of both World and European arrivals which according to World Tourism Organisation forecasts will be 4.6% and 3.4% respectively.

"Tourism Ireland aims to continue to grow tourism to the island of Ireland at a higher rate of growth than international tourism. Our target next year is to grow visitor numbers to 9.3 million and revenue to €4.6 billion.

"In delivering that target, we believe that Mainland Europe and Great Britain will continue to be the strongest contributors to growth, followed by North America. Tourism Ireland has carried out a major review of this market which identified exciting new opportunities for Irish tourism.

"We have a new marketing strategy and plans to exploit those opportunities in 2007", said Paul O'Toole.

O'Toole warned that the demands of the marketplace continued to shift and evolve and that a number of factors could impinge on the ambitious growth targets.

"These include external challenges such as oil prices, currency fluctuations and global socio-political uncertainty which are essentially outside of our control," he said.

"However, a decline in our value for money rating and tourists' perceptions of a deterioration in the warmth of the Irish welcome and the beauty of our scenery are issues that we can and must tackle and will require a joined-up approach from all players in the tourism industry."

He added that there was a more balanced spread of tourists this year which was welcome and overseas revenue is expected to contribute over €2.3 billion to the regions in 2006.

However regional distribution will continue to be a focus for Tourism Ireland.