The numbers of people visiting Ireland in January have been rising steadily in recent years - but not as fast as the numbers leaving, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office.
According to the Overseas Travel bulletin for January 2007, those leaving Ireland in the post-Christmas gloom are rising at least twice as fast as the numbers arriving.
From 2003 to 2007 the numbers leaving in January rose from 293,700 to 493,900, a rise of more than 200,000 people, or about 68 per cent. During the same period the numbers arriving here in January each year rose from 334,800 in 2003 to 440,900 this year, or by about 31.6 per cent.
The CSO figures reveal that while inbound visitor numbers were up more than 106,000 in January, visitors from Britain actually fell by about 4,000 over January 2006. The biggest growth in visitor numbers into Ireland was from Europe with 146,000 people arriving last January, an increase of 30,400 on the previous year.
Visitor numbers from North America grew by about 4,300 to 44,400 and visitors from the rest of the world increased by 1,700 to 22,200.
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