THE NUMBER of US visitors to Ireland jumped by 15 per cent in February despite a weakening dollar, according to new figures released yesterday. Patrick Loguereports.
The figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) also show a 7 per cent increase in visitors from the US over the first two months of the year, compared to the same period in 2007.
US residents made 43,700 visits to Ireland in February, accounting for 9 per cent of all visits here from abroad. British residents accounted for 55 per cent of all overseas visits to the Republic in February, with 259,800 trips here, up 2 per cent compared to February 2007.
Visits by other Europeans fell by just under 4 per cent to 147,600, while trips from other countries increased by almost 38 per cent to 17,200. Overall, trips to Ireland totalled 471,300 in February, which is just over 2 per cent more than the 460,600 recorded in February 2007.
The number of overseas trips made by Irish people increased by 11 per cent in February, according to the CSO figures. A total of 547,600 trips abroad were made compared to 494,600 in February 2007.
In January and February combined, Irish people made 1,096,000 trips abroad compared to 908,300 trips to Ireland by overseas visitors. The number of overseas visits to Ireland is up by almost 1 per cent in the first two months of the year.
Minister for Tourism Séamus Brennan said the figures were encouraging and showed that Ireland was continuing to attract overseas visitors in large numbers "despite difficult market conditions and economic uncertainty in some of our key overseas markets".
Mr Brennan added: "I am particularly pleased to see that the number of visitors from North America is up by almost 7 per cent compared to the corresponding two-month period last year. This is notwithstanding concerns relating to the relative weakness of the US dollar. Similarly, visitors from Britain are also up although sterling has weakened against the euro."
He said this year would "certainly be very challenging for the tourism industry", but the figures provide "some optimism for the year ahead".