July slump in visitor numbers to Ireland
There was a sharp downturn in the numbers of British, other Europeans and Americans coming to Ireland in the peak tourist month of July, the latest data from the CSO shows.Trips to Ireland by residents of Great Britain fell the most at just over 17pc to 341,800, followed by
North America, down 6.1pc to 137,100 and those from Other Europe falling marginally to 311,600.
Overall, trips to Ireland fell by 8.1pc to 835,300 in July 2008 compared with July 2007, the CSO said.
A total of 4,537,000 trips have been taken to Ireland so far in 2008 which was just slightly more than the same period in 2007. This contrasts with a growth of just over 4pc in 2007 from 2006.
While the number of trips from Other Europe and Other Areas maintained some growth, this was somewhat offset by a fall off in the number of trips by residents of Great Britain and North America.
Overseas trips by Irish residents increased by just under 6pc to 856,400 in July 2008 compared with July 2007. This brings to 4,669,700 the number of overseas trips so far in 2008, which grew by 5.4pc from the same period in 2007. However, the rate of growth has declined from the 12.2pc growth rate between the corresponding periods in 2006 and 2007