TOURISM STATISTICS: Gulliver Ireland, the agency handling online bookings for tourist-board-approved accommodation, has seen a big jump in bookings. In the first three months of the year, total online tourist reservations though Gulliver Ireland increased by 25 per cent compared with the same period in 2007.
The number of Americans booking hotels, B&Bs and guest houses through the internet has increased in line with the overall increase, headline figures released by Gulliver to Go reveal.
An analysis of Gulliver's tourism-information website, www.goireland.com - which lists 5,000 approved locations, including upmarket hotels such as the five-star Merrion, in Dublin - shows a jump of 41 per cent for the first quarter.
Domestic holidaymakers account for 46 per cent of bookings through the GoIreland website, up 2 per cent on the same period last year.
UK visitor bookings accounted for 22 per cent of bookings, a slight increase for the quarter.
US visitors accounted for 11 per cent of the January-to-March bookings on GoIreland, a slight decrease.
"However, Gulliver Ireland noted that while the proportion of US bookings was slightly down, actual US tourist bookings for the period had risen," a spokesman said. This was because of the overall increase.
Across accommodation categories, the respective share of bookings has remained relatively static.
The only notable mover was the hotel sector, which saw a large increase. The Dublin share of bookings was down slightly.
The agency stressed that the increases are actual, not virtual. In other words, although more people may be switching to booking through the internet, the number of bed nights sold is up on this period last year.
For foreign tourists, the first quarter is among the peak booking periods for the season ahead.
Close to 770,000 bed nights were sold through Gulliver Ireland last year through the internet, by people accessing regional tourism office websites, individual approved hotels, B&Bs and guest houses. Bookings through these individual property websites are also handled by the agency.