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Irish tourism sees best ever year in 2016

Xinhua, November 29, 2016 Adjust font size:

The year 2016 is set to be the best year ever for Irish tourism, surpassing all previous records and coming on the back of a number of years of strong growth, according to official figures on Monday.

The figures from Tourism Ireland showed that by year end 10.5 million people will have visited the island of Ireland, representing an 11 percent increase over 2015, with growth recorded from all markets.

Tourism Ireland is responsible for marketing the island of Ireland overseas as a holiday and business tourism destination.

It said revenue generated by international visitors is expected to be 5.4 billion euros(5.72 billion U.S. dollars), a 10 percent increase over last year.

Tourism Ireland attributed the rise to a number of factors, including new flights to Ireland from the United States, Germany and Scandinavia, as well as expanded services via the Middle East from long-haul countries.

It said strong economies in key source markets like the United States and Mainland Europe also contributed to the rise.

For 2017, Tourism Ireland said it aims to build on this year's performance.

In 2017, overseas tourism revenue will grow by 4.5 percent to 5.7 billion euros, it said.

It also said that in terms of visitor numbers, the aim is to sustain this year's results and to welcome 10.6 million overseas visitors.

But it admitted the challenge posed by the Brexit fallout.

"2017 may present some challenges, not least Brexit, which is likely to impact on consumer confidence, which in turn may have consequences for travel to all destinations, including Ireland, from Britain," it said.

As our nearest neighbor and our largest market for overseas tourism, Britain will remain a priority for us. The depreciation of sterling against the euro since the Brexit referendum means that value for money will be a key message for us in Britain next year, it added. Enditem