Overseas tourists in Ireland down almost 12% in 2009

There were 6,927,000 overseas visits to Ireland in the year 2009, compared with 7,839,000 in 2008, a decrease of 11.6%, official figures have revealed today.

The report published by the Central Statistics Office today also showed that expenditure figures for the year 2009 show a net outflow of €2.27bn, with earnings from visits to Ireland at €3.879bn, and expenditure by Irish visitors abroad at €6.148bn.