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THE NUMBER OF people visiting Ireland from overseas is up by seven per cent this year, the first rise in four years according to new figures from the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation (ITIC).
The group is launching its end of year review today saying that there has also been a boost to employment with 6,000 jobs added to the tourism sector after seasonal adjustments over the last six months.
According to estimates from the ITIC, overseas visitors from mainland Europe are up 10 per cent while visitors from North America are up eight per cent contributing to an overall rise of seven per cent, RTÉ reports.
This tallies with research from Tourism Ireland, released a week ago, which said there had been a seven per cent increase in the number of overseas visitors compared with 2010.
It estimated that 7.4 million people will have visited Ireland by the end of this year.
ITIC said there were increases in the number of coach tours in 2011 while there were a record 87 cruise liners arriving at Dublin Port this year.
Despite the positive developments over the past twelve months, the figures are still well down on their peak levels in 2007.
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Rip to both. I think the port road is in Kilkenny, though. Really sad day so far. Best wishes to both families.
Will young men ever realise that they are not invincible? There is no reset button on lfe .
@Patrick MC Dermott: And also will we ever provide a transport infrastructure that can keep octogenarians from needing to drive.
@Thesaltyurchin: I’m referring to the unacceptable number of young men being killed almost daily on good straight stretches of road, where they collide with a tree or overturn into a ditch. Cars don’t normally decide to flip over. Octogenarians are less likely to be killed in the same manner.
@Patrick MC Dermott: The article doesn’t mention the circumstance (which allows us to create our own story based on whatever information we imagine)… No doubt they make up nearly a quarter of the current statistics but if you do the maths based on the latest RSA data you’ll see that while 30 people are 16–25 some 90 people are outside this demographic. The age groups of 45+ account for 45 of deaths for example, but there’s less visual association for us to attach our ‘vision’ too.
Every Saturday night, lads in their teens or 20’s, I wonder why?
@GVR: Because they are noticed. They enjoy the aesthetic, we spend all day in cars it’s become a massive part of our culture, but it’s still learned through experience, even now there are people in my extended family who spend all day in a car and know nothing about it. Don’t know how to put air in the tyre, or even drive properly on the Motorway. We should be learning about it in school.
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