According to a new study conducted by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), Dublin is responsible for generating over half of Ireland's gross domestic product in the tourism and travel sector and is highly reliant on international visitors.
As reported by The Irish Times, the WTTC quantifies the economic and employment impact of the sector at both a national and regional level and out of the 65 cities researched, three are responsible for generating more than half of their country's travel and tourism GDP. The three cities in question are Prague (60.3%), Dublin (59.1) and Brussels (52.6%).
Dublin, along with Istanbul, was found to have "a very high reliance" on international demand (90+%), which is boosted by the impact of airport revenues. Additionally, the report found that inbound spend for Dublin last year was €9.2 billion, with the city's contribution to tourism and travel GDP rising from €1.6 billion in 2006 to €2.9 billion in 2016. The report also projected that this figure is set to climb to €4.9 billion by 2026.