Travel statistics released today show that the number of European visitors to Ireland has increased by 16.2 per cent in the first nine months of the year.
The figures released from the Central Statistics Office show that over 1.4 million visits to Ireland were made from mainland Europe by the end of September an increase of over 207,000 on last year.
Travel between Ireland and Britain continued to grow strongly with over 2.9 million visits from Britain recorded by the third quarter of 2005, an increase of 77,300 on last year.
However north American traffic to Ireland remains stagnant. Trips to Ireland by residents of north America fell by 7,400 and the number of visitors from the rest of the world fell by 20,600, compared with January to September 2004.
Between January and September of this year, there were 4,797,100 overseas trips by Irish residents, an increase of 570,600 on the first nine months of 2004.