Tourism takings rise by 21% to reach £3bn

A record 6.3 million people visited Ireland this year, an increase of 5 per cent on 1999, the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation has announced.

In an end-of-year statement on the industry's performance, Dr McDaid said earnings from overseas tourists increased by almost 21 per cent to £3 billion, providing jobs for 153,000 people in the economy.

Current indications show that Britain remains the biggest tourism market with 3.5 million UK visitors this year, up 5 per cent on 1999. They spent an estimated £903 million, a rise of 13 per cent.

The number of North American visitors topped the one million mark for the first time. They spent an estimated £550 million. European visitor numbers rose by 6 per cent to 1.4 million. The number of French visitors was up by a modest 2 per cent while German visitor numbers fell by 1 per cent.

There were better figures for long-haul markets such as Australia, New Zealand and Japan. Visitors increased by 12 per cent to 272,000 and revenue increased by 29 per cent to £148 million.

Domestic holidays were estimated to have increased by almost 7 per cent to 3.3 million. The Irish Tourism Industry Confederation welcomed the figures but warned the sector was becoming increasingly vulnerable "both to economic issues at home and to less favourable attitudes to Ireland in some of our principal markets.

"There is worrying evidence that some of our traditional `core values' of friendliness and hospitality are diminishing."

More than £90 million is due to be spent on marketing Ireland in world markets in 2001. The following year, it is due to be promoted for the first time by a new North/South marketing company Tourism Ireland Ltd, which was incorporated earlier this month.