The number of foreign visitors to Ireland increased by 5.6 per cent in the second quarter of this year, according to figures released by the Central Statistics Office.
Overall, there were 1,704,000 overseas visits to Ireland compared with 1,613,000 in the same period last year the new figures show.
The number of visitors from Britain routes grew by 3.2 per cent while the number on Continental visitors increased by 6.6 per cent on the same quarter in 2002.
The number of both American and Canadian visitors also grew 6.3 per cent.
However the number of overseas visits to Ireland remains slightly below the number in the same period of 2000.
In the opposite direction, the number of Irish visits abroad between April and June 2003 was 1,323,000, an increase of 9.5 per cent on the corresponding period last year.
Irish residents travelling abroad on Continental routes grew by 17 per cent compared while the number travelling to Britain remained stable.
The expenditure figures for April -June 2003 show a net outflow of 18m while earnings from visitors to Ireland accounted for €1,060m. Expenditure by Irish visitors abroad amounted to €1,078m.
The Tourism figures in this release also show that:
The average length of stay of overseas visitors to Ireland with at least one overnight fell from 7.5 nights in the second quarter of 2002 to 7.2 nights in the same period of 2003.
the number of bednights spent in Ireland by overseas visitors increased by 0.4 per cent compared with the same period last year. The number of bednights spent in Hotels fell by 1.3 per cent.
The confirms findings of Fáilte Ireland's the Tourism Barometer - a survey of 767 tourism establishments taken at the beginning of June - which also showed that visitor numbers are up slightly, but showed that many within the industry believe this will prove to be a bad year.
Some 55 per cent of hotels said business was down, as did 69 per cent of guesthouses and 71 per cent of B&Bs.