Irish tourism had an excellent year in 2006 but still faces challenges to continue attracting visitors here, an industry chief has said.
Preliminary figures from Tourism Ireland published today show that over five million visitors came from Britain this year, an increase of 4 per cent on 2005.
Visitors from mainland Europe were up 17 per cent at 2.3 million, and numbers from the United States topped one million for the first time since 2000.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland,Tourism Ireland chief executive Paul O'Toole said that 2006 has been the best year for many years, possibly even the best year ever for Irish tourism but he said that there was a lot more to do.
"Externally the price of oil is an issue because it is making travel more expensive as is general inflation in Europe as a whole, and I suppose other external shocks that may hit from time to time. But also there are some internal challenges," Mr O'Toole said.
"We are only going to deliver this growth if we give our visitor a fantastic experience while they are here so a welcome, issues like our environment and our ability to deliver value for money for the consumer are key."
Mr O'Toole said Irish hotels could compete anywhere in the world despite recent criticism at the standards in Irish five star hotels.
He said an increase in funding from the Department of Tourism would be extremely welcome.