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SPENDING BY OVERSEAS tourists hit just over €3.5 billion in 2014.
The number of overseas visitors grew by 9% to 7.3 million, the highest number since 2008, with all of Ireland’s four top market areas recording growth.
That figure marks a 9% increase, or almost €300 million more, compared to 2013.
For comparison, that is 469,798,657 pints of beer in Temple Bar.
On top of that, Irish air and sea carriers earned a further €1 billion from tourists.
Domestic demand in the tourism sector also picked up, with an estimated 6% increase in spending to €1.5 billion, with a further €300 million earned from visitors from Northern Ireland.
There was an increase of 8% in holiday visitors, those coming to visit friends and relatives (VFR) grew by a much stronger 14%, while business visits were up 4% with United States, Germany, France, and Canada all returning record visitor numbers.
North America and other long haul markets generated over two thirds of the increase in earnings in 2014.
The Irish Tourism Industry Confederation (ITIC) says that they expect an extra 400,000 in 2015, but says
“Tourism has amply demonstrated its resilience, having weathered several difficult years and has proven its ability as an important indigenous export sector to deliver growth”, according to ITIC Chairman Paul Carty.
“Tourism businesses currently are estimated to employ in excess of 200,000 people, with 5,000 having been added in the past year, and the prospect of a further 8,000 jobs being created in 2015.”
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All the more reason to hand out harsh sentences for attacks, muggings and acts of voilence on tourists
And to have patrols on Nassau At where beggars attack them, and tourist police to assist them when things go wrong. We could also try to treat them better when they are injured – I know a man who chose to fly home rather than deal with A&E here. Oh and a cap on prices in the Temple Bar pub!
My rambling reply! Deleted! Gone forever
That’s a night out in Temple Bar!
A round in the Temple Bar pub.
Yep ! I was charged something like 7:40- 7:60 for a pint of Heineken in that pub. Mental money.
What was that for, water in temple bar?
How many pints in a normal country pub?
Probably on one round of drinks in Temple Bar #expensive
Ireland is a rip off country , not even a look over the cliffs of moher is free . Or indeed a glass of water from the tap. Thank f@@k im dying , freedom from this s..t hole corrupt country…
You really should travel.
While you can?
Yikes, does somebody need a hug??!!!
Is a pound from Northern Ireland not the same as a Pound from the rest of the UK…tourism in the southern border counties is dissadvantaged because the government and Tourism Ireland only regard overseas tourism as people who enter the country by air or sea are the only sustainable category worth considering.
Very hard to monitor cross border traffic and refer to it all as tourism. You couldn’t treat the money a bloke from Strabane but working in Lifford spends on his lunch the same way as an American person who buys a pint of Guinness in temple bar while here on a week long holiday.
They would be more domestic tourists that use a different currency for now.
It is not so hard to ask hotels and b&b’s for numbers of cross border visitors. In Cavan for instance top hotels like the Slieve Russell depend on business from Northern Ireland to stay in business.
How do they arrive at these figures for tourist spend. This is all speculation and spin. Who knows how much money our visitors have, and how much they spend here. I’d like to know the basis for this “good news”, or an explanation about the science behind the production of tourist spend figures!
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