TOURISM in Ireland is on the up – and it’s mainly thanks to large numbers flocking from Britain to the Emerald Isle.
New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that for the first 10 months of 2014, the number of overseas visitors has risen by eight per cent since the same period last year.
Furthermore, visitors from Britain accounted for about 40 per cent of the total visits to the state.
The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Paschal Donohoe, welcomed the news.
“All of our main markets are showing impressive growth levels and the figures are further evidence that the measures this Government introduced to help the tourism sector continue to deliver," he said.
British visitors alone were up eight per cent on last year, to 2,678,000.
This accounted for the largest single intake of annual visitors; with those from mainland Europe coming in second at 2,306,900, up 6.9 per cent from January to October compared to last year.
North American visitors were the final big player in visits to the state, with 1,185,800 coming to Irish shores between January and October, up 14.9 per cent on 2013.
In total, there were 6.5million visitors to Ireland in the first 10 months of the year, signifying the eight per cent overall increase.
