Overseas tourists to Ireland up 7% however 'Brexit remains a concern'

Information from the Central Statistics Office has revealed that the number of tourists visiting Ireland from overseas has risen by almost 7% in the year to date.

Information from the Central Statistics Office has revealed that the number of tourists visiting Ireland from overseas has risen by 6.8% in the year to date.

The number of tourists has risen in every category (UK, rest of Europe, USA/Canada and rest of world) with 9,878,000 visits here from abroad since January 1.

Meanwhile, 7,703,300 Irish residents have gone overseas.

“2018 is set to be another record year for Irish tourism and today’s CSO figures indicate that we welcomed almost 9.9 million overseas arrivals during January to November. This represents growth of almost 7% – or 628,100 additional visitors – on the same eleven-month period last year," Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said commenting on today's figures.

“(We) particularly welcome in today’s figures is the continued strong performance from North America, with an increase of 13.1%," he added.

While the number were positive across the board for Tourism Ireland, Brexit remains and uncertainty for the industry heading into 2019.

“While we welcome the fact that arrivals from Britain are up 1%, the continued uncertainty around Brexit, and its impact on outbound travel from Britain, remains a real concern," Mr Gibbons admitted.