Tourism targets €5bn revenue as visitors rise 10%

A 10% rise in visitor numbers will see the tourism industry earn €5bn a year within a decade, tourism minister predicts.

Big increases from the country’s main markets saw an extra 324,000 tourists arrive during the first six months of the year, compared to 2013, travel chiefs revealed.

The welcome influx beats the previous pre-crash record established in the first half of 2008 and showed that the industry was out of the “emergency”, Tourism Minister Paschal Donohoe said.