Almost seven million people visited Ireland in 2005 with significant increases in the number of visitors from continental Europe.
Figures released by the Central Statistics Office today show that 6,977,700 people visited the country last year, an increase of six per cent on the figure of 6,574,000 the previous year.
Visits by Irish people to Europe increased by 17 per cent, while the numbers on transatlantic routes rose by 16 per cent. Overall the figures show that 6,113,000 Irish people made overseas trips in 2005, an increase of 13 per cent on 2004.
The number of continental European visitors jumped by almost 20 per cent. The number of overseas visits on cross channel air routes grew by five per cent, while those travelling here by sea dropped by nine per cent.
Although the number of trips on transatlantic routes last year show an increase of around six percent, the number of visits by residents of the US and Canada fell by two per cent.