Tourism challenge - We cannot rest on our laurels

More than 120,000 foreigners came here on holiday each week last year.

Ireland hosted 6.7m visitors in 2013, representing an increase of 7% on 2012 figures. These more-than-welcome tourists spent an estimated €4.3bn during their stay. In hard currency terms, this was up €300m on the previous year. This was in addition to the unchanged €1.3bn spent by Irish people on home breaks. A very significant €1.4bn of this revenue went to the exchequer in taxes.

In a daunting and almost implacably challenging business and economic environment, this achievement is well worth marking.