Tourist numbers increase 7.3%

A 7.3% increase in the number of tourists was recorded in the first three months of this year compared to the same period last year.

More than 1.34m people came here in January, February, and March, and the Department of Tourism is hopeful that the country is on course to meet its targets of 4% more visitors to Ireland and 8% more tourism revenue this year.

In the first three months, traffic from Britain was up 11.5%, German tourist numbers were up 13.5%, Spanish numbers increased 15.5%, and the number of Italians visiting these shores rose by 13.1%.