Trips to Ireland increase by 7.5%

The total number of trips to Ireland increased by 7.5 percent to about 1.57 million from February to April 2014 compared to the same period 12 months earlier, according to official statistics on Monday. The data released from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed that trips by British residents of increased by 15.2 percent to 735,800 while trips by residents of North America to Ireland decreased by 4.6 percent to 197,700. Trips by residents of European countries other than Britain increased by 3.1 percent to 558,200 while trips to Ireland from other areas increased by 7 percent to 74,900. Last year had been the best for tourism since 2008 with overseas visitor numbers up 7.2 percent in total. There was particularly strong growth from North America, Britain and long-haul markets while Mainland Europe also experienced growth. The cut in the air travel tax to zero comes into effect in April and more than 24 new routes will start this year. Ireland has ambitious targets to grow overseas visitor numbers by another 4 percent in 2014, and revenue by 8 percent.