- Trips to Ireland up 10.5pc in July-Sept
- Up 12pc for first 9 months of year
- Scandinavia & Australia in decline
New CSO figures (see here) indicate Belgium and the Netherlands are the fastest growing inbound markets in the first nine months of the year to September, reflecting extra air capacity to Amsterdam and Brussels.
Growth from North America, especially Canada, and from Britain accelerated in the third quarter of 2016 while growth from Italy slowed, meaning it is no longer likely to overtake Spain as Ireland’s sixth most important inbound tourist market.
Scandinavia saw a small 0.6pc decline in the first nine months of the year, and Australia saw a 3.7pc decline, reflecting reduced one stop capacity through Abu Dhabi.
One surprise was the increased inbound British visitor numbers in the wake of the EU referendum result. Travel Extra editor Eoghan Corry said: The fact growth from Britain is accelerating is in contrast to what is happening the outbound market there, Ireland might actually be benefiting from the exchange rate in that the six counties are a string option for British people and access rates and hotel rates (outside Dublin) are quite good in Ireland as opposed to countries where the price was already climbing steeply even in advance of Brexit/Eurocide, e.g. France and Spain, both have seen hotel prices rise as a result of displaced tourism that would have gone to N Africa, also access was increasing this summer even in advance of referendum particularly from provincial British airports to Ireland.
Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said: “Today’s figures indicate that this was the best ever month of September for Irish tourism, with almost 900,000 arrivals recorded. It was also the best ever January to September period for overseas visitors to Ireland, with almost 7.5 million arrivals, representing an increase of +12% – almost 800,000 additional overseas visitors when compared with the first nine months of 2015. It is clear that 2016 will be another record-breaking year for Irish tourism. We have seen exceptional results from North America for January to September – up +15.4% on the same nine-month period in 2015. I also welcome the strong increase in British visitors (+13.2%). Mainland Europe has also turned in another excellent performance (+10.6%), with important markets like Italy, Spain, France and Benelux all recording really good growth.
We are determined to ensure that growth continues. Upcoming promotions – including a significant presence at World Travel Market in London, with about 70 Irish tourism partners; a sales mission to Australia and New Zealand; and our ‘Jump into Ireland’ travel trade and media blitz to the west coast of the United States next month – will help to keep this momentum going and deliver further success in 2017 and beyond.
Tourism Ireland statement here.
If current trends continue, Ireland is in line to attract over 10m visitors for the first time in 2016.
