There were 1,147,000 overseas visitors to Ireland in the first quarter of 2002, an increase of 10.3 per cent on the same period last year, according to data released today by the Central Statistics Office.
But the figures also show that North American visitor numbers fell by 17.6 per cent in the first three months of the year due to lingering fears of terrorist attacks following September 11th.
A sharp increase in British visitors made up for the shortfall in transatlantic traffic. The number of Visitors to Ireland from Britain increased by 19.1 per cent compared with the same period in 2001.
The number of Irish people going abroad between January and March 2002 was 901,000, an increase of 17.5 per cent on the corresponding period last year.
Continental routes grew by 20.6 per cent compared with the first quarter in 2001, however the number travelling on transatlantic routes fell by 11.1 per cent.