The number of visits abroad by Irish people has outstripped the number of trips being made to Ireland, according to figures released yesterday.
Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures reveal that Irish travellers made more than 1.5 million trips abroad between January and March of this year, compared with some 1.47 million visits by tourists to Ireland.
It is the first time this has happened since the CSO began publishing its quarterly reports in 1990.
Earnings from visits to Ireland accounted for €819 million, while Irish visitors abroad spent €1.14 billion in the first quarter of the year, which represents a net outflow of €324 million.
While the number of Irish visits abroad represented a growth of 17 per cent on the corresponding period in 2006, the number of visits made to Ireland also increased by six per cent.
The number of visits by residents of Britain to Ireland fell by 6 per cent, but the number of visits by residents of other European countries grew by a third.
Visits from the United States and Canada were up by four per cent, and by almost 15 per cent from other destinations.
The statistics show that almost half of people who came to Ireland took the trip for leisure reasons and they stayed an average of 6.4 nights.
Trips by Irish residents on continental European routes grew by 28 per cent, while breaks on cross-channel air routes increased by 7 per cent.
Reacting to the figures, the new Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Séamus Brennan, said they showed that Ireland's tourism sector "continues to perform very impressively".
"I am delighted that the figures for the first quarter of 2007 show visitor numbers up by over 6 per cent on the corresponding period in 2006 and the associated revenue up by almost 12 per cent.
"Both of these figures are ahead of the industry targets for the year," he said.
"One of the concerns in recent years was that the increase in overseas visitor numbers was not being matched by the increase in associated revenue," Mr Brennan said. "Today's figures show that the revenue being generated by overseas visitors is actually increasing at a higher rate than the visitor numbers themselves, which is very good news for the tourist industry."
He said that although visits from Britain were down, the number of those coming to Ireland for holidays was up by more than 6 per cent.
Mr Brennan said Tourism Ireland began its biggest ever marketing campaign in Britain in April and he was confident that figures would improve in the months ahead.