Commenting on figures published today by the CSO for overseas arrivals for January to September 2018, Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said: “Today’s figures from the CSO confirm that overseas visitor numbers increased by +7.1% during the January-September period – 542,300 additional overseas arrivals when compared with the first nine months of 2017.
“Particularly welcome in today’s figures is the continued strong performance from North America, with an increase of +12.9%. A number of factors are working in our favour, including more airline seats than ever before, from more gateways across the US and Canada. We’ve also seen excellent results from Mainland Europe, up +10% on January-September last year, with particularly strong performances from Germany (+20.9%) and Italy (+11.8%). Tourism Ireland has prioritised North America and Mainland Europe, as markets which offer a strong return on investment, in terms of holiday visitors and expenditure.
“While we welcome the fact that arrivals from Britain are up +1.1%, it is not yet clear if this represents a turnaround in the long-term trend. The impact of Brexit on outbound travel from Britain remains a concern.