Dublin still the sixth most visited city in Europe

DUBLIN HAS retained its position in the top 10 most visited cities in Europe. It remained at sixth in the list of European cities visited by tourists from overseas, according to figures for 2007.

The figures place Dublin behind only London, Paris, Rome, Prague and Barcelona. The other cities in the top 10 are Vienna, Amsterdam, Madrid and Berlin.

The figures were collated by Tourmis, an Austrian-based tourism research institute, and are based on figures collected by the different national tourism bodies.

Dublin attracted 4.4 million visitors from overseas in 2007, giving an estimated 19.8 million bed nights. This was a 3 per cent increase on 2006 when Dublin was also the sixth most popular city in Europe for overseas visitors.

At one stage earlier this decade, Dublin was the third most visited city in Europe, but has since been overtaken by Rome, Prague, which joined the EU in 2004, and Barcelona, which now has one of the biggest conference facilities in Europe.

The figures were disclosed at a meeting, organised by tourism bodies from the various cities, taking place this week at the Grand Hotel in Malahide, Co Dublin.

Dublin Tourism chief executive Frank Magee said figures for last year, when the economic downturn really began to be noticed, will also show a 3 per cent increase in tourism numbers.

He described it as a “fantastic return” given the economic circumstances and the competition among other European cities.

“We had a significant increase in visitors from continental Europe. The important thing is that we are holding our own,” he said.

The conference is being attended by tourism officials from all the major European cities. It is due to be addressed by Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary tomorrow. This morning Ryanair will present proposals to reverse what it has called the “current collapse in Irish tourism”.