THE LATEST CSO figures show that trips to Ireland increased by 5.4 per cent in the firs six months of this year.
There were almost 3.145 million trips to the country in total from overseas for the period January to June with over 1.2 million coming from the Britain.
Another 1.5 million trips were made from other European countries in the first six months. There was a surge coming into the summer months with an increase of 4.2 per cent in trips to Ireland from April to June alone – an additional 75,700 trips compared to the same period last year.
Commenting on the figures for the first half of The Gathering year today, Minister Leo Varadkar said it looks like the initiative is persuading people to visit Ireland.
The minister said he was particularly pleased to see numbers from North America performing so well, with an increase of 15.4 per cent in the first six months.
The numbers published today represent the highest total first half-year performance since 2009.
“Events like next year’s Croke Park Classic between University of Central Florida and Penn State in Dublin will keep the momentum going next year,” Varadkar added.
Minister of State Michael Ring also said that the recent good weather has been a “tremendous boost for domestic tourism” with many people choosing to stay in Ireland this year.
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