General Industry

Visitor Numbers Up 13.5% in Q3

By Steve Wynne-Jones
Visitor Numbers Up 13.5% in Q3

Ireland's record year for tourism continues as the latest CSO figures show visitor numbers between July and September were up 13.5 per cent compared to 2014.

In total, an extra 330,500 people visited the country in the third quarter, compared to the same period last year.

The weak euro continues to boost visitor numbers from the UK and US markets, as trips by UK residents increased by 13.9 per cent to 1,050,400 while over 60,000 more people visited from North America, an increase of 12.3 per cent.

Trips made by people in Europe outside of the UK rose by 14.6 per cent and the rest of the world saw a 10 per cent increase. More people also made trip overseas from Ireland, an increase of 3.5 per cent compared to last year.

Commenting on the figures, Minister for Transport Paschal Donohoe said: “With only a couple of months left in 2015, figures released by the CSO today confirm a very strong performance by Irish tourism with all of our main overseas markets continuing to show significant growth."

Fáilte Ireland this week released a report detailing what has been a record summer for Irish hotels and B&Bs. It is expected that visitor numbers will exceed the 7.7 million visitors that landed in the country in 2007, the most to date.

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