The phenomenal growth of low cost air travel across Europe and the opening of the Atlantic air corridor has boosted the number of overseas visitors to Ireland, according to official travel data.
The overseas travel figures released today by the CSO show that overseas visitors made over 4.5 million trips to Ireland in the first eight months of the year with visits from Continental European rising sharply.
The overall travel figures are 4.5 percent ahead of the same period last year while mainland Europe performed exceptionally well increasing by over 15 per cent to 1.3 million visits.
Ireland remains popular with British visitors who comprise some 2.5 million of all travellers.
While travel from the US is 5,000 below last year's figure of 676,000 US demand has picked since the introduction of new routes in May.
Commenting on the results, Paul O'Toole, chief executive of Tourism Ireland welcomed the figures singling out an excellent performance from Europe where improved access from Germany and Spain is paying dividends.
Mr O'Toole stressed that that the benefits of this growth should be enjoyed by the tourism industry across the regions. Many traditional tourist areas in Ireland such as the south west have struggled in recent years as tourists have opted for short city breaks in Dublin.
Mr O'Toole said considerable amount of our marketing efforts this year has been devoted to working with the regional authorities and industry on the ground to help boost regional spread.