An increase in visitor numbers has made it a record first half of the year for tourism revenue in Ireland, according to the Central Statistics Office.
Statistics show tourism revenue for the first six months of 2018 was up by 8.5 per cent on the same period in 2017, which itself was a record.
Visitors to Ireland spent €2,270 billion in the first six months of the year. When carrier fares are included, expenditure was up by 8.1 per cent to €3,049 billion.
The record-breaking figures were helped by especially buoyant visitor spend from mainland Europe (up by 12.2 per cent), North America (9.4 per cent). Even the British market, which has been declining in recent years because of the value of sterling, grew by 0.6 per cent. Revenue associated with visits from other long-haul destinations grew by 8.6 per cent.
Visitor numbers
Similar increases in visitor numbers were recorded in the first half of the year. The total number of overseas visitors grew by 6.6 per cent. The number of visitors from North America increased by 11.4 per cent and from mainland Europe by almost 10 per cent. Visitor numbers from Britain increased by 2 per cent.
Fáilte Ireland chief executive Paul Kelly said the record-breaking streak was "no accident" and came about as a result of the nine per cent VAT rate and the zero airport tax, along with a strong marketing campaign by both Fáilte Ireland, which is confined to the Republic, and Tourism Ireland which markets the island of Ireland abroad.
He said the increased tourism revenue will bring another €100 million into the exchequer.
He added: “The key focus now is to ensure that we can continue to build on this growth and overcome any challenges the industry may face in the near future – particularly with Brexit on the horizon.
“This strong growth simply will not continue if we don’t plan ahead and diversify into other markets to offset the potential impact of losing visitors from our nearest overseas market.”
Momentum
Tourism Ireland chief executive Niall Gibbons said it hoped to maintain the momentum of an increase in visitor numbers from the UK despite the looming challenge of Brexit.
He said: “Next month, I will also lead another delegation of Irish tourism industry leaders to London for roundtable meetings with key players in the British travel trade.
“Maintaining our competitiveness is critical to continue to grow tourism from overseas.”
The Minister for Tourism Shane Ross said the tourism industry needs to diversify its markets more quickly to guard against the effects of Brexit as Britain remains Ireland's biggest tourism market.
He said: “The very positive returns from areas such as mainland Europe and North America show the importance the tourism agencies place on these high-value markets.
"In addition, Tourism Ireland led its largest ever sales mission to China this year as it continues to implement a market diversification strategy which, as the data released today indicates, has been very successful."
