Close to 9m tourists visited in record year

Almost 9m tourists have visited Ireland so far this year and 2016 looks set to smash all visitor number records.

According to end of year figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), 8,919,700 visits were made to Ireland between January and November — a rise of 11% on the same period last year.

The figure also surpasses the record number of visits achieved over 12 months in 2015 (8,643,100) making it the best year ever for Irish tourism.