Irish Visitor Numbers Continue To Rise

Visitor traffic into Ireland continued to grow in the three months to the end of May, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office.

The total number of trips to Ireland by overseas residents from March to May was up 7.5% to just over 1.9 million.

This represented an overall increase of 132,600 over the same period in 2013.

Trips by residents of Great Britain increased by 11.9% to 812,800 while trips by residents of North America increased by 5% to 296,400.

Trips by continental Europeans grew by 3.4% to 698,900 while trips to Ireland from other parts of the world – including Australia and New Zealand were up 10.6% to 96,200.

Meanwhile, the number of overseas trips made by Irish residents fell by 9% in the first three months of the year, the CSO said.

However that decline was reversed during the period from March to May when overseas trips grew by 0.6%.

Just over 1.17 million outbound trips were made during the first three months, down from 1.28 million in the same quarter of 2013.

Britain and Northern Ireland remained the most popular destination, accounting for almost 44% of the total figure.

During the period from March to May, the total number of overseas trips made by Irish residents increased by 0.6% to 1,527,100.