Trips to Ireland increased by 3.6% in 2017

According to the Central Statistics Office, the total number of trips to Ireland in 2017 was 9,932,100, an increase of 3.6 per cent over 2016. There was an increase of 7.2 per cent in the number of overseas trips made by Irish residents in 2017 to 7.9 million.

Trips by residents of Great Britain decreased by 5.0 per cent in 2017 to 3,728,900 while trips by residents of European Countries other than Great Britain (Other Europe) increased by 5.5 per cent to 3,482,400. “The fall in value of sterling since Brexit referendum has made holidays here more expensive for British visitors. Competitiveness and value for money message remain more important than ever in the GB market for 2018,” Tourism Ireland tweeted.

 Trips by residents of North America to Ireland increased by 16.2 per cent to 2,101,500 while trips to Ireland from Other Areas increased by 12.6 per cent to 619,300. In the period October – December 2017, the total number of trips to Ireland rose to almost 2.3 million – an increase of 6.2 per cent compared to the same period in 2016.

The total number of overseas trips by Irish residents during October – December 2017 increased by 3.4 per cent to 1.76 million. In the fourth quarter of 2017, the total number of trips (Irish residents’ trips overseas plus trips to Ireland) exceeded 4 million, an increase of 4.9 per cent when compared with the same quarter twelve months earlier.