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Tourism Minister Leo Varadkar has welcomed strong growth in the number of holidaymakers and business people who travelled to Ireland last year, as revealed by new CSO figures published today.

While the overall number of visits to Ireland held steady last year, the number of core tourism visits grew very strongly with holiday trips up 3.8% and business trips up by 7.7% in 2012. By comparison, visits to friends and relatives in Ireland were down by 7.9%.

These figures confirm that the recovery in Irish tourism, which began in 2011, was maintained in 2012 with overseas holidaymakers to Ireland continuing to grow and business trips performing particularly well,

Minister Varadkar said.

Spending by visitors to Ireland also increased by 4.5% last year to €3.68 billion, with particularly strong growth in expenditure by holiday visitors from:

• North America: up 10% to €519 million;
  and from other long-haul areas: up 11% to €142 million.

We are continuing to market strongly to potential holidaymakers from these areas, given that they tend to stay longer and spend more than visitors from closer to home. The Government has worked hard to build on this sector with measures like the Visa Waiver Programme and by attracting new air routes into Ireland, particularly from the US. I am confident that we can encourage further growth from these longer-haul markets in this Gathering year.

Minister Varadkar said.

Although overall bednights fell by 4.7% to 47,942,000 – individual nights spent in any type of accommodation in Ireland – the hotel sector itself saw a boost in bednights, while fewer visitors opted to stay with friends or relatives:

The number of hotel bednights grew by 13% to 14,180,000 in 2012;

While those staying with friends or relatives fell 9.8% to 13,331,000.

The number of bednights also increased for all types of serviced accommodation (guest houses, B&Bs and hotels) for visitors from North America and other long-haul markets.

Minister of State for Tourism and Sport Michael Ring added that:

Building on these encouraging results from 2012, and drawing on early indications from this year to date, I am confident that we can continue to grow tourism for Ireland during The Gathering Ireland.

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