Official figures show that the number of trips made to Ireland in the second quarter of this year was up by almost a quarter of a million compared with the same period last year.
Travel was disrupted by volcanic ash in the second quarter of 2010.
The Central Statistics Office said there were just over 1.78 million trips made to Ireland in the three months, up 15.6% or 240,200 from a year earlier.
The biggest increase came from continental Europe, with visitor numbers to Ireland up 24%. Visits from Ireland's biggest tourism market, Britain, grew by 8.5%, while trips from North America were up 17%. Trips from other countries rose by 21.3%.
For the first six months of the year, visits to Ireland are up 12.7% - or 333,000 - compared with the same period last year. The strongest growth has again been from continental Europe, up 17.6%.
The CSO said Irish people made 1.77 million trips abroad during the second quarter, up 5.9% form a year earlier. This figure had been on a downward trend since late 2008. The figure for the first half of 2011 is still 2.3% lower, however, compared with the same period in 2010.
The total number of trips made by Irish people - which includes travel within Ireland - was up 10.5% from a year earlier to 3.55 million in the second quarter.
Tourism Minister Leo Varadkar said that although comparisons with the first half of last year were distorted by the impact of severe weather and volcanic ash, the figures confirmed indications on the ground that travel to Ireland was recovering. He said Britain, which was also affected by ash, recorded slower growth of 6% in the first half of this year.
The Irish Tourist Industry Confederation (ITIC) welcomed the Q2 growth, but warned that the levels of growth should be treated with caution due to the impact of the ash cloud phenomenon on 2010 figures.
'When this is taken in to account the growth levels are in reality more modest. The 7% growth from Britain for instance, while encouraging and very much in the right direction, still leaves visitor numbers from our largest market down 30% from the peak Q2 performance of 2006,' said ITIC chief Eamonn McKeon.
The Irish Hotels Federation welcomed the figures, but president Paul Gallagher said a strong rise was not surprising as there was a significant drop in the same period last year due to disruption from volcanic ash.
He said the third quarter figures would provide the first real insight into whether there has been a recovery in Ireland's overseas tourism markets.
