Niall Gibbons
By Evan Short
Over 10.5 million overseas visitors arrived in Ireland during 2016, delivering a revenue of €5.4 billion, according to Tourism Ireland.
The new figures show that last year was a record-breaking year for tourism on the island with 2017 looking like another bumper year.
The number of visitors is up from nine million in 2015.
Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said: “Today’s figures indicate that this was the best every January to November period for overseas visitors to Ireland, with almost nine million arrivals, representing an increase of plus eleven percent - 884,400 additional overseas visitors when compared with the first eleven months of 2015. It is clear that 2016 will be another record-breaking year for Irish tourism.
“We have seen exceptional results from North American for January to November – up more than plus eighteen percent on the same eleven-month period in 2015.
“I also welcome the strong increase in British visitors (over +11%). And mainland Europe has also turned in another excellent performance (almost plus nine percent), with important markets like Spain, France and Germany all recording good growth.
“Tourism Ireland has a number of late-season campaigns under way right now, to kick-start our promotional effort for 2017 The aim is to grow overseas tourism revenue in 2017 by plus four and a half percent to €5.7 billion for the island of Ireland.”
Minister for Tourism Shane Ross, however, warned against the uncertainty that Brexit could bring to the future tourism market in Ireland.
“We know that the result of the UK referendum on EU membership may bring challenges for tourism in 2017,” he said.
“Therefore, it will be more important than ever that Ireland stands out as a top tourist destination in our key overseas markets.”
Tourism Ireland will be targeting audiences in North America and Europe with new marketing campaigns this year.
