Tourism Continued To Grow In 2007

The latest figures on Ireland's tourism industry from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed that trips to Ireland for the first eleven months of the 2007 were up by 4.7% on the same period in 2006, with 7,489,300 overseas visitors travelling to Ireland.

Taking the month of November alone, there was an increase of 14.4% in the number of trips to Ireland compared to November 2006.

Visitors from Europe were up by 14.8% for the year to date in November. Much of this increase came from the more developed economies of Western Europe (particularly Italy, France, Spain and Germany).

There was also a significant increase in visitors from the newer Member States of the European Union, in particular Poland, which increased by 39% for the eleven-month period.

Visitors from Britain for the first eleven months of 2007 were up by 0.3% on the corresponding period in 2006 with November figures showing an increase of 13.7% over November 2006.

The number of visitors from North America was up by 1.1% in the first eleven months of the year. The number of visitors from the U.S. was up by 2%, but Canada recorded a decrease of 7%.

In the first eleven months of 2007, trips abroad by Irish residents increased by 11.9% over the corresponding period in 2006.

The Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Mr. Séamus Brennan, T.D., welcomed the increased overall visitor numbers saying that "the data shows that overseas visitors continue to come to our shores in record numbers.

"It has been our policy for some time to try to extend the tourism season and while November would traditionally be one of the quieter months for overseas visitors, we still welcomed almost 600,000 visitors," he continued.

Citing figures that show that visitors from mainland Europe were up by almost 15% for the first eleven months of 2007; visitors from the USA were up be 2% while visitors from Great Britain were up by 0.3%, he continued, "I am very heartened by the return to growth of visitor numbers from Britain which increased by almost 14% for the month of November alone compared with November 2006."

"This market has been particularly challenging recently due to economic factors and poor weather conditions during the Summer. Following a strong Tourism Ireland campaign in October, the latest results show that we are again going in the right direction in the British market, still Ireland's most important single-country market," the Minister concluded.