There was a 26 per cent rise in tourist visits to Ireland in January from mainland Europe this year, according to new figures published today by the Central Statistics Office.
In its latest update on overseas travel the CSO said that there were 440,900 visitors from overseas to Ireland, an increase of 32,500 compared with the same month last year. This was an overall rise of 8 per cent.
The number of visitors from Britain dropped 1.7 per cent to 228,000. This was more than compensated by the increase in visitors from other European states which rose 30,400 to 146,200.
Tourists from North America and Canada rose by 10 per cent to 44,400. Tourists from all other areas rose 1,700 to 22,200.
In January Ireland had 21,100 Polish visitors, 18,500 from Denmark, 6,900 from Australia and 18,500 from France.
The CSO data also shows that Irish residents took 11.6% more trips abroad in January making a total of 493,900 overseas visits.