The annual report of the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation says it expects the number of people visiting Ireland this year, and the revenue generated by them, will have grown by approximately 4%.
It says it expects that Irish tourism had its best overall result in 2003 since the record year of 2000. It's estimated that just over six million visitors came here during the year, an increase of 3.7%.
The number of tourists visiting here fell following the terrorist attacks in the US in 2001, but the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation (ITIC) now says the industry has rallied.
Preliminary estimates indicate that over 6.1 million visitors gave revenue growth of over _4 billion this year. The ITIC has described this as an impressive performance.
But chairman Brian Dowling said that not all business have shared equally in this growth, and that the industry still faces some problems as it looks towards 2004 - these include the high cost of doing business here and the loss of price competitiveness. Many enterprises he said had to cut margins in order to stay in business.
The ITIC has called on the govermnent to control inflation and address the issue of rising input costs, for example insurance rates - it also says the industry itself can improve through innovation, high standards of service and product quality.
