Dublin Tourism yesterday outlined proposals aimed at attracting more visitors to the city. Under the terms of the new plan, due to be launched in May, Dublin will be promoted as a city of culture, rather than one of just "music, pubs and craic".

Frank Magee, Dublin Tourism's chief executive, said that while these attributes had proved extremely attractive in bringing tourists to the city in the past, the ambition now was to embrace and build on what already exists with new ideas.

Last year the number of people visiting Dublin rose by 5 per cent, producing an 11 per cent gain in tourism revenue. Mr Magee said 2006 was also set to be a "bumper year," with visitor numbers and revenue expected to increase by 7 and 9 per cent respectively.

He said the ability of Dublin to attract visitors was essential to the overall Irish tourism market, as only 40 per cent of visitors actually leave the city for other parts of the country.

This is backed up by a report by the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation released at the end of last year showing that while the Dublin tourism market continued to grow last year, growth in many parts of rural Ireland was static.

As part of the new campaign, Dublin Tourism has expanded visitdublin.com to 5,000 pages and created downloadable podcasts, which can be used as self-guided walking tours around the city.

The majority of visitors to Dublin are expected to continue to come from Europe, though markets such as the Middle East are becoming increasingly important, and the US remains a key market.