merrion street

Tourism Minister Leo Varadkar has welcomed the ongoing increase in visitor numbers so far this year, and predicted annual growth in visitor numbers for the first time in four years.

The latest travel figures from the CSO for July to September 2011 show that over 5 million visitors came to Ireland in the first nine months of the year – an increase of 10% on the same period in 2010.

From an early stage this Government targeted tourism as a key growth area for the economy. That’s why the Jobs Initiative had such a strong tourism element. These latest figures, which cover the period from when the Jobs Initiative took effect, indicate that the measures are helping to sustain the rebound earlier in the year, and we are going to see annual growth in visitor numbers for the first time since 2007.

Minister Varadkar said.

For the first nine months of 2011:

• Visitors from Great Britain were up by 7.4%

• Mainland European visitors were up by 12.3%

• North American numbers were up by 10.6%

• Other long haul routes were up by 15%