The tourism industry rallied strongly in the first quarter of this year, with visitor numbers up over 8 per cent on last year.
According to the latest CSO statistics released yesterday, some 1.2 million people visited Ireland in the first three months of the year. Visitor numbers from North America grew by 22 per cent and by 5.5 per cent from Great Britain. Visitor numbers from European countries grew by 3.5 per cent.
Irish residents made 1,041,300 overseas trips in the first three months of the year, an increase of 10.5 per cent on last year. The Minister for Tourism, Mr O'Donoghue, said he was pleased to see the continuing strong recovery in the important North American market.
"It was good to see that Great Britain, our largest market, is holding up well, he added."