January visitor numbers plummet 26% on last year

IRELAND’S struggling tourism industry looks set to remain in the doldrums in 2010 as new figures show the number of overseas visitors here in January plummeted by 26%.

A total of 313,800 foreign tourists came to the Republic last January – 110,400 less than the same month in 2009.

The sharpest drop was in the number of visitors from Britain which were down almost 32% to 142,400.