The Irish tourist market is one of the fastest-growing ones in the OECD, according to economist Dr Sean Barrett, who says that overseas visitors generated £1.45 billion in revenue last year.

Writing in the current issue of the Irish Banking Review, Dr Barrett says that Ireland had over twice the average growth rate of 24 OECD countries for tourism figures. "Only Turkey had a higher growth rate for tourist numbers and Ireland had the highest growth rate in hotel nights spent by visitors," he says. He adds that since the deregulation of airline competition in 1986, the Dublin-London route has replaced the London-Paris one as the busiest international route in Europe, with more than three million passengers annually.