The number of visitors to Ireland so far this year was up more than 5 per cent on the same period last year, figures showed yesterday.
A report by the Central Statistics Office showed there were 3.7 million trips to Ireland - an increase of 5.2 per cent on the figure of 3.5 million for the first seven months of 2003.
The figures also showed the number of visitors for July was up by 4.3 per cent on the same month for 2003.
Travellers from Britain continued to top the tourism charts, but during July numbers fell by 2.6 per cent compared with the same month in 2003.
For the first seven months of the year the amount of British visitors was down 0.2 per cent on the same period in 2003.
Trips by people from other European states increased by 14.9 per cent to 234,000 on the corresponding July 2003 figure of 203,600.
Visitors from North America increased by 2 per cent when compared with July 2003, and in the year to date to the end of July the number was up 10.7 per cent on the first seven months of 2003.
The CSO figures also showed Irish travellers made 618,800 trips abroad in July 2004, an increase of 13.1 per cent on the figure of 547,300 in July 2003.
Tourism Ireland welcomed the latest increase in visitor numbers, but expressed concern that the rise continues to be unevenly spread across regions and sectors of the tourism industry.
Mr Joe Byrne, director of markets and customer relations of the tourism promotion body, said the growth pointed to the innate appeal of Ireland as a holiday destination, and the determination of the industry. Tourism Ireland would be working with other tourism bodies to improve the regional spread of visitors.
In the meantime, Tourism Ireland has embarked on the most intensive autumn/winter marketing campaign mounted for the island of Ireland. The €12 million campaign in key markets has been designed to capitalise on the late booking trend.