Overseas visitors down 25% in April due to ash cloud

THE closure of Irish airspace due to volcanic activity in April caused a dramatic reduction in the number of overseas visitors to Ireland.

New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the eruption of the Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajökull, over a number of days that month also led to a sharp decrease in Irish residents making trips abroad.

The disruption to air travel in April represented further bad news for the already hard-pressed tourism industry. It was the primary reason why 151,300 less trips were taken to Ireland by foreign visitors in April compared with the same month in 2009.