Irish Visits Abroad Exceed Visits To Ireland

There were 7,839,000 Overseas Visits to Ireland in the year 2008, compared with 8,012,000 in 2007, a decrease of 2%. This marks the first time that visits abroad have exceeded visits to Ireland since reporting began in 1952.

The number of Overseas Visits to Ireland dropped on all routes in 2008, except for the Continental European route. This increased by 3.1%.

Trips on Transatlantic routes decreased by 10% in 2008 while expenditure decreased by 26%.

The number of business trips increased by just over 10%, while spending on these trips increased by over 7%.

Expenditure and trips for the purpose of holidays o leisure and Recreation both decreased by 8%.

The number of Overseas Visits by Irish Residents increased by 2% to 7,877,000 in 2008 compared to 7,713,000 in 2007. The expenditure of Irish Visitors Abroad increased by 11% overall, with total Cross-Channel expenditure increasing by 16%.

The expenditure figures for the year 2008 show a net outflow of €2,131m. Earnings from Visits to Ireland accounted for €4,781m, while expenditure by Irish Visitors Abroad amounted to €6,912m.

Commenting on the newly released figures, Martin Cullen T.D., Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism focused on the "continuing resilience of the Irish tourism sector in the face of the current challenging global environment."

Minister Cullen said: "We are all acutely aware of how economies worldwide contracted in the second half of 2008.

"Against this background, Ireland welcomed over 7.8 million overseas visitors with total associated inward revenue of €4.78 billion in 2008.

"These visitor numbers are vitally important as recent Fáilte Ireland research shows that 98% of visitors said they would recommend a holiday in Ireland to family and friends."

The breakdown of visitors for 2008 shows that 3.87 million visitors came from Great Britain, 2.6 million from mainland Europe, 1 million from North America and 350,000 from other long haul destinations.

Minister Cullen said that everybody in the industry: "Deserves great credit for the quality of their product and their commitment in responding to challenging economic conditions through more flexible pricing and offering special value menus and packages.

"I am aware that the early indications are that 2009 is going to be even more challenging.

"Having said that, there has never been better value available for overseas and domestic tourists.

"The key tourism agencies - Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland - are implementing major business plans for 2009 designed to support the marketing of Irish tourism, to improve our product offerings and to help improve business capability during this difficult period and are getting the message out that there has never been a better time to visit Ireland," he concluded.