Figure released today have revealed a fall-off in the number of visits to the State at the start of the summer.
According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), there were 749,900 trips into the country in June, which was down by almost 24,000 (or just over 3 per cent) on the same month last year, traditionally one of the busiest times of the year for the industry.
The steepest fall in holidaymakers was from the United States and Canada, with visitors from those countries down sharply by 10 per cent for June, and down by 1.4 per cent for the first half of the year.
There was also an 8 per cent dip in visitors from Britain in that month.
However, the Government today insisted tourism was doing well despite the figures.
Minister for Tourism Martin Cullen focused on overall CSO records for the first half of the year that show a slight increase in visitors.
“Everyone involved in Irish tourism has acknowledged that our tourist trade is not immune to the challenging economic conditions, in Ireland and overseas - particularly in some of our largest overseas source markets,” he said.
“Nevertheless these figures from the CSO show that over 3.7 million overseas visitors came to Ireland in the first half of the year — representing an increase of over 2.6 per cent on the first six months of 2007.”
The Minister noted that six-monthly figures showed trips from England, Scotland and Wales were up 1.7 per cent.
“The North American numbers must be seen in the context of a record year for Irish tourism last year, consumer sentiment in the US, fuel costs and the dollar-euro exchange rate,” Mr Cullen said.
While conceding that tourism may have have been less strong in July and August, he said there was "exceptional value" to be had for those holidaying in this year as a result.
But Fine Gael tourism spokeswoman Olivia Mitchell warned today that the CSO figures are a "disturbing signal" for the sector.
“June, as the beginning of the traditional holiday period, should be showing an increase in the number of visitors," Ms Mitchell said.
"The last time there was a drop-off of trips in June was 2002 and that was by less than a third of the decrease shown in today’s figures . . . 23,900 less trips, a 3 per cent fall, has to sound alarm bells for the Minister."
The Fine Gael TD said Mr Cullen should not try obscure the worrying trend revealed by the figures.
Tourism generates around €6.5 billion spending in the Irish economy and funds around a quarter of a million jobs, according to the Government.
PA