Figures released today by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that almost three million Irish people travelled abroad during the first half of the year.
Irish citizens made 1.6 million trips outside the country between April and June 2005 - an increase of 14 per cent on the same period last year.
1.8 million overseas visits were made to Ireland in the second quarter of 2005
In the first three months of the year 1,208,000 people travelled abroad - compared with 1,039,000 in the same period in 2004.
Between April and June, around 965,000 people gave holidays as their reason for travelling, 345,000 were visiting friends or relatives and less than 200,000 were making business trips.
There was an 11 per cent increase in the number of European visitors to Ireland , while the number of visits by residents of the USA and Canada fell by 1 per cent between April and June.
The Minister for Tourism John O'Donoghue said figures from the North American market were down on last year, which may have been affected by a decrease in the number of US visitors to Ireland via Britain.
However, the figures reveal that earnings from visitors to Ireland equalled the expenditure by Irish visitors abroad.
Mr O'Donoghue said: "The first six months of this year has shown that mainland Europe is the star performer in terms of Irish tourism. This may also reflect the strong increase in air access to Ireland from that region."
Irish residents travelling abroad on air cross-channel routes grew by 21 per cent in the second quarter of the year, however, the number travelling on sea cross-channel routes recorded a drop of 17 per cent.
The CSO revealed over 1.8 million overseas visits were made to Ireland in the second quarter of 2005, compared with 1.76 million in the same period last year. Mr O'Donoghue welcomed the 4 per cent increase in overseas visitor numbers in the first half of the year.
The number of bed nights spent in guest houses and B&Bs by overseas visitors to Ireland dropped by 12 per cent in the second quarter of 2005 compared to the previous year.