Perhaps looking to escape the poor weather here, residents of Ireland made an extra 87,000 trips overseas in June compared with June 2006. This represents a rise of 13 per cent, according to Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures published yesterday.
Figures for the first six months of this year show that about 450,000 more Irish people took trips overseas in 2007 than during the same period last year.
But in a trend likely to prompt concern within the tourism industry, the number visiting the country increased by just 3 per cent in June. Similarly, overall figures for the year to June show that the number of overseas trips to Ireland stood at 3.61 million, up just 114,000 on the previous year.
This represents significantly smaller growth in visitor numbers than in 2006, when an extra 406,900 - or 13 per cent - visitors came here during the same period.
Minister for Tourism Séamus Brennan expressed satisfaction with the figures, which he said had been achieved "despite the challenges of global economic anxiety and poor weather".
Earlier this month Met Éireann confirmed that we had experienced the wettest June and July in Dublin since records began 170 years ago.
The CSO figures reveal that the total number of trips to Ireland registered a moderate increase of 21,700 (or 3 per cent) to 772,200 in June. Visits by residents of countries such as France, Germany and Poland increased by 16,200, while trips by residents of North America rose by 6,600.
There were also 3,200 more trips to Ireland by residents of Britain, although trips from other areas fell by 4,300.
Mr Brennan acknowledged that visitor numbers from the important British market were down 2.9 per cent for the first six months of this year, but said the months of May and June had shown "some recovery" in this market.
He added that during the first six months of this year, visitor numbers from mainland Europe increased by almost 15 per cent, while visitors from North America were up by 3 per cent and visitors from other long-haul routes were up by more than 4 per cent.
"It remains to be seen whether the severe weather in Great Britain during July and August will impact on the numbers coming to Ireland during these months," he said.
James Malone, president of the Irish Travel Agents' Association, said that he was broadly happy with these trends.