26 October 2005. The overseas travel figures released by the CSO which indicate an increase of 4.5% in visitor numbers in the first eight months of 2005 have been welcomed by Tourism Ireland. Mainland Europe, one of Ireland's key markets, performed exceptionally well increasing by over 15% on the same period last year. The figures also reflect the continuing recovery of the British market, with a year to date increase of 2.5% following a levelling off in 2004.
The improvement in numbers from North America for the third month in a row was also a welcome development, as there had been considerable concern at the drop in visitors during the early part of the year. However the market bounced back with June, July and August showing very strong growth, benchmarked against an excellent performance in 2004 and despite predictions that events in London would impact on the market.
Commenting on the results, Paul O'Toole, Chief Executive of Tourism Ireland said: 'We are happy to see continued growth in overall visitor numbers. This has been underpinned by an excellent performance from Europe where Germany and Spain in particular have yielded very positive results, driven largely by the huge increase in direct air access.
We are also pleased to see the strong performance from the North American market. We saw increased transatlantic services kick in at the end of May and the results are evident. The recent announcement from Delta of further new transatlantic services planned for 2006 augurs well for future performance from this important market. The British market appears to be recovering well also and is showing the fruits of our new marketing strategy implemented following our root and branch review of the market last year.'
Paul O'Toole added that while the strong growth from all key markets in August was very welcome, the statistics were very much top-line results.
'The real measure of performance is the success or otherwise of the individual tourism enterprises that make up our industry. Undoubtedly, some enterprises are performing well, while others are finding the going much tougher. Another key consideration is that this growth is enjoyed by the tourism industry across the regions. A considerable amount of our marketing efforts this year has been devoted to working with the regional authorities and industry on the ground to help boost regional spread.'
ENDS
For further information:
Fiona Scott, Tourism Ireland: 01-475-3429/087-685-9027