Official figures show a big drop in the number of visitors to Ireland in July, led by a sharp fall in trips from Britain.
The Central Statistics Office said there were 856,400 visits to Ireland in July, down just over 8% compared with the same month last year.
The numbers coming from Britain fell by 17% to 341,800, while visits from North America were down 6% to 137,100. The number of visits from other areas of Europe was little changed at 311,600.
For the first seven months of the year, trips to Ireland are up a marginal 0.4% compared with the same period last year, with growth in visits from continental Europe and other areas offsetting falls from Britain and North America.
Overseas trips by Irish residents in July were 856,400, up 6% on July last year. For the year so far, trips abroad are up 5.4%, a slowdown from the 12.2% growth rate at the same stage last year.
