Ireland ranks in top 50 countries on tourism map

Ireland is among the top 50 most visited countries on the planet — and ranks higher than Portugal and Australia in global popularity.

Ireland is ranked 32 in a table of the biggest tourist destinations in the world with 7.6m visitors per year. France is the biggest visitor mecca with almost 81m visitors, while the US is runner-up with 62m.

China comes in third with over 57m visitors closely followed by Spain with over 56m.

The map, created by Movehub, a website that helps people move abroad, shows Italy in fifth place, welcoming more than 46m visitors a year, followed by Turkey with 34m and the UK with just over 29m visitors.

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Max Holloway of Movehub, who compiled the colourful map, said Ireland ranked very high in the list. “Ireland fared very well at number 32. It received more visitors than Australia, Portugal, Brazil, and Japan.

“The data for Northern Ireland is bundled in with the United Kingdom which was ranked at number 7.”

He said he believes France is the biggest tourist hub in the world because of a string of factors.

“In terms of biggest factors for France, it has a massively high-density of arts and culture.

“It is a European destination you can speak English in, but will still feel like a proper different country, unlike London in the UK.”

Ireland also surpassed Denmark, Sweden, and Norway in the rankings.

Mr Holloway said Ireland’s large numbers of visitors reflect its popularity as a nation among the rest of the world.

“In terms of the international community Ireland is very popular, no-one sees it having any historic or current foreign policies that would put people off from visiting.

“We see a great number of people moving there from Australia, France, Canada, UK and the USA. Ireland also gets movers from around the world, but those are the big five.

“I think there is a great deal of local tourism from England, Scotland and Wales to Ireland. As well as it being an incredible country to visit.