Worries over the war in Iraq, SARS and the global economic downturn led to a fall in the total number of overseas visitors to Ireland in the first quarter of the year.
There were 1,118,000 overseas visitors to Ireland in the first three months of 2003 compared with 1,121,000 in the same period last year, a fall of 0.3 per cent, according figures from the Central Statistics Office.
However when excluding daytrippers, the number of visitors who spent at least one night in Ireland and thus more money increased marginally by 0.5 per cent to 1,063,000.
Commenting on the figures today, Mr Paul O'Toole, chief executive of Tourism Ireland said "In the context of the Iraq war, economic uncertainty and SARS, the increase in the number of international visitors to the Republic of Ireland in the first quarter, albeit a marginal increase is welcome news."Visits from the United States and Britain showed the sharpest falls.
The number of British visitors fell by 4.2 per cent, although this was offset by a rise of 10.3 per cent rise in visitors from Continental Europe.
Mr O'Toole described the reduction in numbers from Britain as "disappointing" but he said this reflects the impact that the scenes of tanks and troops at Heathrow had on consumer confidence at the time of the Iraq war.
The underlying trend is also negative for visits from North America. US and Canadian figures grew by 5.2 per cent on the first quarter of 2002 but this period was badly affected by the aftermath of the September 11th attacks. The 2003 figure is down 11.9 per cent on the same period in 2001.
The number of Irish visitors going abroad between January and March 2003 was 939,000 - an increase of 5.4 per cent on the corresponding period last year.
Irish residents travelling on Continental routes grew by 15 per cent compared with the first quarter in 2002, while the number travelling on transatlantic routes fell by 2.1 per cent.
The number of business travellers fell by 11.9 per cent and has fallen by 20.4 per cent on the same period in 2001, reflecting the slowdown in economic activity and corporate belt tightening.