August visitors to Ireland topped the one million mark this year.

Commenting on new figures from the CSO for overseas visitors to Ireland for January to August, Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said: “Today’s figures indicate that this was the best ever month of August for Irish tourism, with more than 1.125 million arrivals recorded. It was also the best January to August period for overseas visitors to Ireland, with more than 6.55 million arrivals, representing an increase of +12.3% – 718,600 additional overseas visitors when compared with the first eight months of 2015.

 

Our aim is to ensure that 2016 is another record-breaking year for Irish tourism. We have seen exceptional results from North America for January to August – up +15.4% on the same eight-month period in 2015. I also welcome the strong increase in British visitors (+13.4%). Mainland Europe has also turned in a superb performance (+11%), with important markets like Italy, Spain, France and Benelux all recording really good growth.”