The number of tourists who visited the State in the second quarter of this year was up 10.6 per cent on the same period last year, according to figures released by the Central Statistics Office.
Some 1,562,000 visited between April and June, compared to 1,412,000 in the same period last year.
In all 2,429,000 tourists visited in the first six months of 1998.
The number of overseas visitors on the cross-channel routes between April and June of this year increased by 12.4 per cent on the same period last year.
However, the number of visitors from the US and Canada in the second quarter of 1998 was 3,000 fewer than in the same period in 1997.
Visits abroad by Irish residents between April and June increased by 11.5 per cent on the same period last year to 891,000. Travel on continental routes accounted for most of this increase.
In the first three months of the year, visitors to Ireland spent £332 million, some £55 million more than Irish visitors spent abroad.
The average length of stays for visitors in Ireland during the first three months of the year was 6.8 nights, which compared with an average of 7.5 nights for Irish residents staying abroad.
There was an increase of almost 40 per cent in the number of "same-day visits" from foreign residents. Business trips abroad by Irish residents went up 15 per cent in the same period.
