Decrease in number of visitors to Ireland

THE NUMBER of overseas visitors to Ireland fell by more than 10 per cent in September when compared to the previous year, the latest statistics show.

A 17 per cent reduction in visitors from Britain accounted for much of the decrease but the number of trips from Europe and North America also fell.

Data from the Central Statistics Office showed a similar reduction in the percentage of trips from Britain in July, although the August figures showed an increase in the number of visitors from Britain.

Tourism Ireland has described trading conditions in the British market as tough because of the downturn in the global economy and issues such as the exchange rate. However, according to the data, the economic downturn did not have a major impact on Irish people travelling abroad.

Irish residents made 726,300 overseas trips in September - a 2 per cent fall on the number of trips made in September 2007.

In the first nine months of this year, the number of overseas trips by Irish residents grew by 4.4 per cent to 6,241,600 compared to the same period in 2007.

However, this was in contrast to an increase of more than 14 per cent in September 2007, compared with September 2006.

There were more Irish trips overseas than trips to Ireland in the first nine months of this year. The number of trips taken to Ireland fell by just over 1 per cent to 6,174,000.