Surge in visitors boosts tourism industry’s worth to €7.5bn

The tourism market was worth €7.5bn to the country last year, up some €900m on 2014, according to figures released by Fáilte Ireland.

The tourism body’s preliminary figures for 2015 found that overseas tourist visits to Ireland grew by 13.1% to 8m, while short-haul markets in Britain and mainland Europe recorded respective growth of 11.3% and 15.7%.

Fáilte Ireland said that North America and other long-haul markets performed “very strongly”, increasing by 12.9% and 11.7%, respectively.