A Record Year For Tourism

All of Ireland's major markets have shown very healthy performances in 2006. Visitors from Mainland Europe were up by over 19% for the year; visitors from Britain were up by 6.1%; and the number of people visiting from North America rose by 10.9%.

The total number of visitors to Ireland during 2006 was 7,709,000.

The Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, John O'Donoghue, T.D., was pleased with the numbers saying, "The figures published today confirm that 2006 has been a remarkable year for Irish tourism. Over 7.7 million visitors came to Ireland during the year. This is an increase of 10.5% on the previous year and strongly exceeds the target set for the year.

"All of our main markets show strong growth but I am particularly pleased to see that the North American market has recorded a very strong recovery following a softening in 2005." he continued.