Rumours that George Clooney and his wife Amal Clooney are considering making a trip to Dublin and/or Kilkenny may have given Ireland's popularity as a tourist destination a shot in the arm.
Hotels.com has said that searches for Dublin and Kilkenny have leaped by 139 per cent and 62 per cent respectively.
Stateside, searches for Kilkenny are up 73 per cent, while searches for Dublin have increased by 37 per cent in comparison to the same period last year.
Commenting on the jump in searches, Lizann Peppard from Hotels.com, said "The current figures on our site indicate that this visit has already piqued the interest of travellers from different countries with searches up from the US and UK, two very important markets for Ireland.
"As we saw in Venice last year, images of the city were beamed around the world and any visit to Ireland should also help showcase the country as a fantastic place to visit and encourage more visitors."
