Tourism in Ireland reaches record year

Reuters:  Ireland attracted more tourists in the first 11 months of 2015 than in any year on record, official data showed last week, as the European Union’s fastest-growing economy reaped the benefit of a weak euro.

Five years after Ireland required an international bailout, its economy could grow by as much as 7% this year, a recovery that has been increasingly boosted by improved consumer spending and growth in labour-intensive areas such as tourism.

Tourist trips, mainly from Britain and the United States, increased by 14% year-on-year, the central statistics office said, putting 2015 already ahead of the 8 million people who visited Ireland in 2007, before its financial crisis struck.

The crisis also sharply cut prices in an industry that had become prohibitively expensive during the “Celtic Tiger” boom years, a welcome move made more attractive by the fall in the value of the euro against the U.S. dollar and sterling.

“2015 has been a superb year for overseas tourism, with almost 1 million additional overseas visitors arriving here from January to November when compared to 2014,” said Tourism Ireland chief executive Niall Gibbons.

“Ireland now welcomes 10% of all American visitors to Europe - particularly noteworthy given the intense competition from other destinations.”