Overseas visitors hit nine million mark

Overseas visitors to Ireland are expected to top the nine million mark for the first time according to figures released today by Tourism Ireland.

Preliminary figures for 2007 show that revenue generated by overseas tourism is forecast to grow to €4.6 billion, an increase of 7.5 per cent on 2006 and there will be an an additional 400,000 visitors.

Chief Executive of Tourism Ireland, Paul O'Toole, said that the target for next year is to grow visitor numbers to 9.6 million and revenue to €4.9 billion.

"Tourism has the potential to generate over €16.1b for the island of Ireland in overseas earnings, an increase of 24.2 per cent in current terms over the period (2008-2010)," he said.

Meanwhile, the Minister for Tourism, Séamus Brennan, said that the 9 million visitors represented another record performance for tourism to the island.

Mr Brennan warned that due to the increasing uncertainty in the economic climate and unfavourable exchange rates mean that mainland Europe will become an increasingly important market for Ireland next year.

"It will also be important for the tourism industry to look at business potential in new and developing markets such as China and India," Mr Brennan added.