Ireland's earnings from tourists increase 8.5pc in first half

Overseas visitors to Ireland spent a total of 2.27 billion euros (2.64 billion US dollars) in the first half (H1) of 2018, up 8.5 per cent compared with the same period in 2017, according to the government data.

The data, released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Wednesday, revealed that the figure stood at nearly 3.1 billion euros, up 8.1 per cent over a year, when carrier fares are included.

When carrier fares are excluded, the revenue from visitors from Europe other than Britain went up by 12.2 per cent.

North American visitors in the country rose by 9.4 per cent, the CSO said, adding that earnings from British visitors only increased by 0.6 per cent in the first half of this year, reports Xinhua.

Earnings from visitors from other parts of the world also saw a strong growth of 8.6 per cent in the first half of this year, said the statistics office.

Minister for Transport Shane Ross said, "The very positive returns from areas such as Mainland Europe and North America show the importance the tourism agencies place on these high-value markets."

In addition, the country’s efforts to implement a market diversification strategy which has also begun to pay off as the data released by the CSO indicated, said the minister.

According to the CSO, a total of 4.87 million overseas visitors visited Ireland in the first half of this year, up 6.7 per cent over a year ago. (1 euro=1.163 US dollars)