Published on : Saturday, June 30, 2018
“North America continues to perform extremely well – with arrivals up +12.4%, around 82,000 additional US and Canadian visitors. We’ve also seen excellent results from Mainland Europe, up +12.3% on January-May last year, with particularly strong performances from Germany (+25.6%) and Italy (+16%). Tourism Ireland has prioritised Mainland Europe and North America, as markets which offer a strong return on investment, in terms of holiday visitors and expenditure.
“While we welcome the fact that arrivals from Britain are up (+2.4%), it’s too early to say if this represents a turnaround in the long-term trend. The impact of Brexit on outbound travel from Britain, therefore, remains a concern. The fall in the value of sterling has made holidays and short breaks here more expensive for British visitors and has made Britain more affordable for visitors from many of our top markets. Competitiveness and value for money remain more important than ever in Britain this year.
“Looking to the rest of the year, the air and sea access picture is very positive – with increases in the number of airline seats from Britain, Mainland Europe, North American and long-haul markets. We look forward to seeing the impact of new long-haul flights on Irish tourism this summer – including the new Aer Lingus service from Seattle to Dublin, which began last month, as well as the Hainan Airlines flight from Beijing and the Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong, which both kicked off earlier this month.
“We are determined to ensure that tourism growth continues. Tourism Ireland’s campaigns are now in full swing around the world. Our aim is to grow overseas tourism revenue in 2018 to €6 billion, for the island of Ireland.”
Tags: Tourism Ireland