10.3% increase in number of tourists

TOURISM is bouncing back from last year’s downturn because of the foot-and-mouth scare and the September 11 terrorist attacks on the US.

Official figures show that 1,147,000 people visited Ireland in the first three months of the year - a 10.3% increase on January-March 2001. The improved performance pushed up foreign tourism earnings by 5.8%. “I am not surprised,” said Tourism Minister John O’Donoghue.

“I had expected the first quarter to be strong and the figures confirm that, although the first quarter only represents about 16% of annual visitor