Surge in North American visits helps boost tourism

AS Ireland’s economy continues to grow at the fastest rate in the EU, the worst of the financial crisis is beginning to feel like a distant memory for some.

With the financial, tech and manufacturing sectors providing the platform for economic growth, other areas have benefited over the past couple of years.

One such area is tourism, which has seen a marked turnaround in fortunes since the depths of the financial crash.

Figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that visits to Ireland from overseas have grown by 3.5 million since the crisis was at its worst back in 2012.

The number of trips made to Ireland during 2016 was 9.5 million, making it a year of record growth for the Irish tourism sector.

The CSO figures show that during the period from November of last year to the end of January, the numbers of overseas visits to Ireland rose by 7.2pc compared to the same period in 2015.

Britain is by far the largest source for overseas visitors into Ireland, with 841,700 trips made across the Irish Sea between November and the end of January, a rise of 3.3pc.

While that rate of growth can be considered somewhat moderate, the figures show that UK visitors are continuing to see Ireland as an attractive location for business and tourism, despite lingering uncertainty surrounding the outcome of Brexit negotiations.

“The figures are very welcome and reflect ongoing growth for the tourism sector, said Paul Kelly, ceo of Fáilte Ireland.

“We need to work hard to maintain this positive momentum particularly in the light of the recent weakening of sterling relative to the euro.”

Mr Kelly said it was vital that those working in the tourism sector keep developing growth strategies in the year ahead.

“It is important that we continue to invest in our visitor experiences to ensure that Ireland remains a compelling and attractive destination for overseas visitors,” he said.

Significantly, there was a huge rise in the number of visits from North America during the three-month period. Traffic from the US and Canada rose by 30.8pc compared to the same three month period in 2015.

There were a total of 314,500 arrivals from North America in the three months to January, a rise of 74,000 compared with 12 months previously.

Visits from Germany accounted for 99,300, followed by the Benelux countries, which provided a total of 82,200 people over the period. There were 81,000 visits from France, while visits from Spain and France came in at 77,100 and 52,700 respectively.

Visits from other EU countries – including Eastern Europe – stood at 179,800.

“The figures published today show that 2017 has begun on a positive note,” said Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Shane Ross. “Last week Norwegian Air International announced their plans to launch lowcost transatlantic services

from Cork, Shannon and Dublin this summer, which will contribute further to tourism growth from North America.”

Tourism Ireland has said it hopes to grow revenues from overseas visitors by 4.5pc to €5.7bn over the course of 2017.

The number of Irish trips taken overseas rose by 12.4pc over the same period to 1.5 million.

Trips to mainland Europe came in at 558,500, over the three months, representing an increase of 2.3pc. Trips to other areas were up 11.4pc.