Tourism Ireland, which is responsible for marketing the island of Ireland overseas, says that overseas tourism performance to the island of Ireland was relatively good in 2004 with visitor numbers increasing by 3.3% to 7,746,000. Overseas visitors to Northern Ireland were up by 3.6% similar to the Republic of Ireland growth figure. Revenue from overseas visitors to the island of Ireland amounted to £2,521m / €3,654m in 2004, accounting for around three quarters of all revenue generated by tourism.
Tourism Ireland's Chief Executive, Paul O'Toole, emphasised that whilst overseas tourism has continued to perform well, emerging international trends means that Tourism Ireland and the industry cannot afford to become complacent. It is true that visitor numbers to the island of Ireland continued to grow in 2004 and we turned in a reasonably good performance with an additional quarter of a million visitors. However, the benefit of this increase was not shared evenly across all regions and sectors. Some sectors enjoyed a fairly good year, whilst changing consumer trends, hit others hard and some sectors and individual enterprises suffered as a result. Later booking decisions, shorter stays and the offer of many exciting new Eastern European destinations made their impact in 2004 and will continue to do so. The challenge now is to ensure a good level of sustainable growth coupled with a more equitable spread of overseas visitors and the benefits that they bring, to all sectors of the industry and to all corners of the island.'
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