The latest official data on overseas travel from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows an increase of 12.2% in overseas visits to Ireland for the first seven months of 2015 compared to the same period of 2014.
Visits from Mainland Europe grew by 12.7% for January to July 2015 (1,712,800 visits), North America registered an increase of 14.9% for January – July 2015 (857,100 visits), and visits from Great Britain were up by 11.1% for January – July 2015 (1,952,700 visits).
Visits from the rest of the world, mostly long-haul and developing markets, were up by 8.5% totalling over 292,100 visits.
Failte Ireland’s Director of Business Development, Paul Keeley commented, "As we start to see concrete data regarding visitor numbers this summer, it is now very clear that 2015 is going to be a record-breaker for the tourism sector and, on current trends, we may eventually welcome up to 7.7 million to our shores this year.
"This growth is testimony to the good value and great quality currently on offer in Ireland."
Source: www.businessworld.ie
