CIÉ Tours International, the coach tours unit of the public transport body, has reported annual revenues of €63 million for 2007, 13 per cent more than in 2006. The result on the bottom line was not disclosed, although the company said it "continued to trade profitably" in an "increasingly challenging" worldwide tourism market.

With almost 55,000 tourists using its service this year, CIÉ Tours International said it remains the biggest Irish-owned incoming tour operator.

Referring to the rise in its revenues, the company said: "Much of this increase has occurred in the company's core business of bringing North Americans to Ireland on coach tour holidays. In achieving its success CIÉ Tours purchased over 400,000 bed-nights in 2007."

CIÉ Tours International employs 100 people, 55 of them at its US headquarters in New Jersey. The privatisation of its business was mooted in 2003 when the current Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism Séamus Brennan held the transport portfolio, but the proposal was never advanced. The company operates an outbound business for Irish tourists on tours in the US, Canada, Europe, South Africa, China and Australia.