Jameson Distillery soaks up the visitors after €11m refurbishment

More than 350,000 people from over 70 nations visited the Jameson Distillery in Dublin last year, new figures show.

The visitor centre in Smithfield, which is on the site of the original Jameson distillery that operated from 1780 to 1971, reopened last March after closing down for seven months to undergo an €11 million refurbishment.

More than 4 million people visited the premises between 1997 and mid-2016.

Californian-based BRC Imagination Arts led the redevelopment, having previously worked on a number of tourist-related projects, including the Guinness Storehouse, the Heineken Experience in Amsterdam, and the World of Coca-Cola Museum in Atlanta.

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"As is evidenced by the incredibly strong visitor figures recorded over the past year, the new-look Jameson brand home has fast become the must-visit whiskey destination in the world," said Claire Tolan, managing director of the centre.

Ms Tolan said since the centre reopened last March it had taught 32,000 people how to blend whiskey and create whiskey cocktails; had sold 25,000 personalised distillery Jameson edition bottles, and facilitated four marriage proposals in founder John Jameson’s secret office.

Jameson is ranked as the world’s fastest-growing Irish whiskey, with 28 years of consecutive growth and sales of 6.5 million cases in 2017. The whiskey is exported to over 130 markets, with more than half of these experiencing double- or triple-digit growth.